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Russia To Pause Attacks On Energy Infrastructure; Astronauts Stuck For Nine Months At ISS Returned To Earth; NVIDIA Unveils Next Generation A.I. Chips. Aired 3-3:45a ET
Aired March 19, 2025 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max, I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin hold one-on-one talks about the war in Ukraine, but there's still no ceasefire deal on the table.
Israel vows Tuesday's strikes on Gaza are just the beginning, accusing Hamas of refusing to return all the remaining hostages.
And a picture-perfect return to Earth for astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore after their much longer-than-expected stay in space.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us.
Well, the White House and the Kremlin are praising an agreement to pause some attacks in Ukraine. But the details of a Tuesday phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin differ, depending on who you ask.
Moscow says it will halt its strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, while Washington says the pause covers energy and infrastructure targets. CNN is reaching out for clarity on the discrepancy, but with this small concession now agreed upon, President Trump says he hopes a full ceasefire will soon follow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We had a great call. It lasted almost two hours, talked about a lot of things, and toward getting it to peace, and we talked about other things also.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Meanwhile, Ukraine's president says a Russian drone struck a hospital in the Sumy region overnight. Russia has a track record of attacking civilian infrastructure and energy targets in Ukraine, and Kyiv's forces have responded with strikes on Russian oil refineries and pipelines.
There was no discussion of Ukraine giving up any territory during the Trump-Putin call. But a prisoner exchange is planned today. Ukraine's president says while he supports the pause in energy attacks, he believes Russia is not ready for a full ceasefire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We support all steps aimed at ending the war, but in order to support them, we need to understand what exactly we support. When President Trump has time, he is a busy man, but when he has time, he can call me any time. He has my phone number, we are ready to talk through further steps with pleasure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen reports now on Russia's reaction to the Trump-Putin call.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Breaking news on Kremlin-controlled T.V. The moment word came out, the long-awaited call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had ended.
It lasted more than two hours and 28 minutes, the anchor says. State media immediately hailing the call as a win for Putin.
We've been accustomed for many years to the fact that the West addresses Russia arrogantly and from a position of moral superiority, this guest says, and now we see a completely different picture.
Both the U.S. and Russia saying they want to work towards ending the Ukraine conflict, starting with an immediate 30-day halt to attacks on critical energy infrastructure by both the Russians and the Ukrainians. The Kremlin said Putin has agreed.
Vladimir Putin responded positively to this initiative and immediately gave the Russian military the corresponding order, the Kremlin readout says. But that's where the agreement seemed to end, Putin making steep demands on his terms, calling for an end of all Western intelligence- sharing and military aid to Ukraine, aid which Kyiv says has been vital to keeping its forces in the fight in the past years.
The Kremlin makes no secret of the fact their main goal is normalizing U.S.-Russia relations and major sanctions relief. Even as Vladimir Putin, speaking at an economic forum in Moscow, cautioned that could take time even with a Russia-friendly administration in Washington.
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This is a mechanism of strategic pressure on our country, Putin says, and no matter how the situation develops, no matter what the system of international relations is, our competitors will always strive to restrain our country, weaken its economic and technological capabilities.
This comes as Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, who some have called the ideological brains behind Putin's invasion of Ukraine, is promoting his new book, "The Trump Revolution."
PLEITGEN: So there's a lot of people in the West who believe and fear that President Trump is closer ideologically and politically to Vladimir Putin than he is to his Western allies. What do you think?
ALEXANDER DUGIN, RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHER: Yes, it's so. I agree. That is obvious.
He is much more conservative, he is in favor of traditional values, he is in favor of the patriotism of the nation. And I define that as the great powers world order. Putin and Trump coincide in accepting this model.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): And both the Kremlin and the White House say they are in favor of fundamentally restoring U.S.-Russia ties as fast as possible.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Joining us now is Matthew Schmidt, associate professor of national security at the University of New Haven and former professor of strategic and operational planning at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Appreciate you being with us.
MATTHEW SCHMIDT, ASSOCIATE PROF. OF NATIONAL SECURITY, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAVEN, AND FORMER PROF. OF STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL PLANNING, U.S. ARMY COMMAND AND GENERAL STAFF COLLEGE: Good to be here, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So not long after his two-hour call with U.S. President Donald Trump, President Putin was already bombing civilian targets inside Ukraine, including a hospital, according to Ukraine's president. Now, on that call, Putin had agreed to stop attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for 30 days, but rejected a full ceasefire unless all his demands are met. How would you assess President Trump's negotiating tactics in light of all of this?
SCHMIDT: Terrible. Basically, Putin said, I'll stop shelling the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and I'll no longer bomb substations, but that's it. And Putin is clearly in control of this negotiation.
He's engaged in a strategy here of drawing it out and putting time pressure and exhaustion on Ukraine in order to lower expectations for the negotiation. And he was very successful in doing this in the first round. CHURCH: And according to this partial ceasefire, Putin gets 30 days of
relief from attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, but can continue striking inside Ukraine to maximize his territorial gains before any deal is eventually signed. And Putin gets to normalize relations with the U.S. So what exactly does Ukraine get out of all of this?
SCHMIDT: Nothing, really. The civilians get some relief, although it's minor. Most of the attacks on energy infrastructure are designed to freeze people out in the winter. And we're coming into spring now, so that's less effective.
And, you know, again, what you see here is not really a focus on territorial gains for Russia over the next 30 days. That's important.
But the most important thing here is that I believe Putin's goal is to affect the on the ground situation in Ukrainian politics. I think you're going to see him push very hard in the next few weeks for Ukraine to agree to hold elections as a precondition for extending the ceasefire.
And that's really what Putin is pushing for here. And, you know, the military goals are primarily to get back the small area of Russia in Kursk that Ukraine holds and to extend their control over the regions that they already controlled to reach the outer edges of those administrative districts.
CHURCH: Yes. Russia, of course, is demanding an end to all Western intelligence and military aid to Ukraine, as well as sanction relief. So what will Trump likely give Putin to get the full ceasefire that Trump is asking for?
Because the White House readout on this call didn't even mention Russia's top demand for an end to Western military aid and intel. And Trump says they never discussed that issue. But according to the Kremlin, they did.
SCHMIDT: Yes, I think the Trump administration has already paused aid once. I think they'll be willing to do it again. And in that sense, I think that Trump is personally invested in a belief that he will win the Nobel Prize if he can stop major combat in Ukraine, regardless of whether or not the way in which he stops it will produce a lasting peace or a just peace.
I think he's very personally focused on that Nobel Prize. And if you listen to his advisers, if you listen to Rubio's words, they reflect that every time they go out in public and speak.
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CHURCH: Do you think that Putin is playing Trump here, taking advantage of his apparent inability to grasp the detail and complexity of Russian-Ukrainian relations, politics and history?
SCHMIDT: I think he is, but I think even more important, he's taking advantage of the president's psychology. He knows that Zelenskyy is sort of a threat to Trump's ego, as we saw, you know, last week. And we know that Putin, that Trump admires Putin and is sort of at
least subconsciously seeking his favor. And so I think he's really playing off of that psychological game to push his opponent back.
CHURCH: Right. And of course, it has to be said that it is clear why Russia wants to normalize relations with the U.S. But what's in it for Trump to normalize relations with Russia?
SCHIMDT: At the political or the economic level, I don't really understand that. I think it's mostly driven by Trump's personality and, again, his desire to appear like he has control over these events, that he's sort of the master of the world and is exerting American power once again, you know, making America the top dog in the world in this sense. I think that has much more to do with it than any sort of search for rationalization, for why normalizing relationships with Russia, a country we have very little economic ties to, very little cultural ties to, makes sense.
CHURCH: Matthew Schmidt, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your analysis. I appreciate it.
SCHMIDT: Always a pleasure.
CHURCH: Turning now to Turkey, where authorities have detained Istanbul's mayor, according to prosecutors and state media, detention orders have also been issued for around 100 other people.
The mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, is seen as a key political rival to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And this comes just days before the main opposition party is scheduled to hold a primary election, where Imamoglu was expected to be chosen as its presidential candidate.
CNN's Paula Hancocks is following developments this hour from Abu Dhabi. She joins us now live. So, Paula, what more are you learning about this?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, we know now that Ekrem Imamoglu is in detention. He was detained for questioning, according to TRT, the state-run media. And this is an investigation into corruption and terror-related charges.
Now, we did see earlier this morning riot police security vehicles outside his home waiting to detain him. We also heard from Imamoglu as he was getting ready. Let's listen to that.
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EKRAM IMAMOGLU, ISTANBUL, TURKEY MAYOR (through translator): I am saddened to say a handful of people who are trying to steal the will of the people have sent to deal the police, the security forces implicating in this wrongful doing. Hundreds of police officers have been sent to the door of my house.
The house of the 16 million people in Istanbul, we are up against the huge bullying, but I will not back down. I love you all. I entrust myself to the people. I will be standing tall, I will continue to fight against them and the mindset that uses these processes as an apparatus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANCOCKS: Now, he is seen as a key rival of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who's been in power now for more than two decades. Now, this comes as the main opposition party, CHP, is just days away from carrying out a primary election. Imamoglu was widely expected to become the presidential candidate during that election and then would have been able to run against President Erdogan if he were to stand again as expected before the elections in 2028.
Now, what we saw on Tuesday was that Istanbul University actually nulled his degree, saying that there were irregularities back in 1990, something which Imamoglu rejects and says that he will launch a legal challenge against. But what this means is that if he doesn't have a degree, then he is unable to stand in these elections.
Now, we've heard from the head of the main opposition party saying this is a coup attempt against our next president. Imamoglu has been very critical of Erdogan, also of the government itself. Now, we also know that all demonstrations have now been banned in Istanbul for the next few days.
We know that metro stops have been closed, some roads as well in downtown Istanbul to make sure, they say, to quote, "maintain public order," so there won't be any demonstrations against this. Rosemary.
CHURCH: Our thanks to Paula Hancocks joining us live from Abu Dhabi.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is declaring a forceful return to battle with Hamas and is vowing to keep fighting until the militant group is wiped out. But not all of Israel is on his side. Massive crowds gathered in Tel Aviv to protest his actions of shattering the nearly two-month long ceasefire agreement.
Israel's renewed strikes early Tuesday morning killed more than 400 people and injured hundreds more at last check from Gaza's health ministry, making it the deadliest day in Gaza since November 7, 2023. Netanyahu claims Hamas was unwilling to cooperate on extending the ceasefire and rejected two U.S. proposals. The militant group denies this.
The Israeli Prime Minister says there's more fighting to come.
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): This is just the beginning. We will continue to fight to achieve all the goals of the war, the release of all our hostages, the elimination of Hamas and the promise that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Just ahead, a picture-perfect splashdown after months in space. We'll have the latest on astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams and their long-awaited return to Earth. Back with that in just a moment.
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CHURCH: After an extended stay at the International Space Station, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally back on Earth. They splashed down Tuesday off the coast of Florida after spending 286 days in space, far longer than the original eight-day mission.
CNN's Leigh Waldman has more.
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UNKNOWN: And splashdown, Crew 9 back on Earth.
LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A harrowing finish to the end of a long journey. Parachutes deployed slowing the capsule barreling towards Earth. The Crew 9 astronauts landed off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida.
UNKNOWN: And SpaceX Freedom, splashdown.
WALDMAN (voice-over): NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov rode alongside Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, finally back to Earth. Splashing down Tuesday evening after Butch and Suni spent more than 285 days aboard the International Space Station. The Boeing Starliner they rode up to space in was deemed unfit for them to return on due to helium leaks and propulsion issues.
The pair was able to hitch a ride back home aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
UNKNOWN: We see main chutes cut. Nick, Alex, Butch, Suni, on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home.
WALDMAN (voice-over): After their splashdown, recovery vessels zoomed up to the Crew Dragon standing at the ready after the capsule plunged back into the atmosphere. SpaceX recovery ship named Megan used a large rig to haul the capsule carrying the astronauts out of the water.
Afterwards, the crew was slated to be flown to Ellington Field and finally taken here to nearby Johnson Space Center to eventually be reunited with their families.
UNKNOWN: The big issue is these two astronauts miss their families. WALDMAN (voice-over): The astronauts were originally slated to be away from home for an eight-day mission but had their timeline extended to nine months. Back here on Earth, their capsule was greeted by dolphins.
At the Johnson Space Center, I'm Leigh Waldman.
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CHURCH: Still to come, hunted by Russian drones. Ukrainian civilians say they are being terrorized and their daily horrors of the war now shared and mocked on Russian social media. Residents in Kherson speak with CNN, that's next.
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CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. Want to check today's top stories for you.
Turkish authorities have detained Istanbul's mayor according to prosecutors and state media. Ekrem Imamoglu was detained for questioning for investigations on corruption and terror-related charges. He's seen as a key political rival to Turkey's president and the likely presidential candidate for the main opposition party.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning Hamas that Tuesday's deadly airstrikes are only the beginning. More than 400 people were killed in the attack and hundreds more injured, according to Gaza's health ministry. Israel is accusing Hamas of refusing to release hostages and rejecting mediation offers, claims Hamas denies.
Moscow has agreed to a pause in strikes on energy targets in Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone on Tuesday for about two hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine's president says he supports the pause but does not think Russia is ready for a total ceasefire.
Now while the Ukrainian port city of Kherson was liberated from Russian occupation more than two years ago, civilians there say they are still being hunted and terrorized by armed Russian drones as they try to go about their daily lives.
CNN's Clarissa Ward has our report.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the streets of Kherson, anyone is fair game. Every day, swarms of Russian drones glide across the river on a deadly hunt that locals have dubbed a human safari. They target the old and the young, men and women.
Flying low, they taunt and terrorize their prey.
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A man crosses himself, preparing for the worst, before the drone buzzes on.
Others are not so fortunate. Russian social media is awash with these videos, complete with heavy metal soundtracks and gloating comments. But to the people of Kherson, this is anything but a game.
WARD: So this is the central square here in Kherson, and you can see it is eerily deserted, just a few people out on the streets. It was raining and cloudy earlier, which means sometimes more people go out because that's not good weather for flying drones.
But now, again, just a handful of people. All the stores you can see over there are basically boarded up.
WARD (voice-over): The one supermarket open is heavily fortified. For Kherson residents, the simplest daily errand is the riskiest part of the day.
Some can't even get to the supermarket. We drive to meet volunteers from the local administration.
WARD: So we're heading now to the eastern outskirts of the city. This is one of the most dangerous parts of the city, and they're getting ready to distribute some aid. They have to do it quickly and efficiently to ensure that they don't get seen by the drones.
WARD (voice-over): The area is very exposed. We're told to hide our body armor under our coats.
WARD: Okay, so we've just arrived at this point. You can see they're starting to distribute the aid.
WARD (voice-over): Beleaguered residents emerge from their homes, where they live largely stranded. They grab supplies for neighbors who need help. They've lived through Russian occupation, then liberation, now this.
Inna and her granddaughter tell me that life is so hard here. But there's no time to be afraid. She goes to collect her box of supplies.
WARD: So I told her that she's very strong, and she said, everybody here is very strong. We have to be.
WARD (voice-over): A man sets about repairing the roof of his home, undeterred by the near certain prospect of future attacks.
WARD: So they're saying that they have heard from the army that Russian drones have taken off from the other side of the river, so they're telling us to move on now.
WARD (voice-over): We speed through the roads back to a safer part of the city. Nowhere in Kherson is really safe. The local hospital is surrounded by sandbag barriers.
WARD: He says they hit here quite a lot. That's why there's all these protections outside.
WARD (voice-over): Across Kherson region, there were more than 2000 drone launches just last week. The aftermath of that staggering statistic clearly seen here.
Olena Shigareva says she and her friend were walking home from work when they were hunted.
We were two women, all made up, without hats, carrying flowers and wearing white jackets, she tells us. They could see we were women, not soldiers. It's just horror.
In another room, 19-year-old Boris is recovering from lung and leg injuries after the minibus he was traveling in was hit by a drone. Two people were killed and eight wounded.
They are Russians, what can I say, he tells us. They're animals, nothing else to say.
WARD: Pretty much every room in this entire ward has someone in it who has been injured or maimed by a drone. The doctor says they have 28 drone injuries that they are treating at the moment. This is just one of three hospitals that serve this city, and he said the number has just been going up and up since last August.
WARD (voice-over): We steadily receive 90 to 100 patients injured in drone attacks a month, he says, and there were 20 attacks in one week on the hospital's generators.
Russia has frequently targeted Ukraine's power infrastructure in this war, rarely has it so flagrantly pursued civilians.
We can call it a hunt for civilians, Mayor Roman Mrochko explains. The Russians send fresh drone units to Kherson region and they train by attacking ordinary people with drones, then send these units to Donetsk and Lugansk, then they send another new unit here to continue the human safari.
WARD: What can you really do to protect people here?
WARD (voice-over): There's no panacea to fully cover the city because the Russians are developing their technologies, he says. There's no jammer that can fully close the sky.
And so the people of Kherson suffer on. As outside powers bargain for an end to this war, nowhere are Russia's intentions felt so intimately.
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Clarissa Ward, CNN, Kherson. (END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: CNN has reached out to Russia for comment on the allegations they are intentionally targeting civilians in Kherson. We have not received a response.
A big announcement from NVIDIA. The tech company says its new chips will allow apps to think more like humans. What we're learning about this next generation of A.I. chips.
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CHURCH: U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to take control of the Panama Canal is facing resistance from China. Officials in Beijing and Hong Kong are speaking out against a deal where Hong Kong-based firm C.K. Hutchison would sell ports in the Panama Canal to a group led by U.S. firm BlackRock.
It's leading to doubts that the nearly $23 billion deal will go through. The uncertainty has sent shares of C.K. Hutchison plummeting, closing more than 5 percent lower.
NVIDIA is revealing new details about its next artificial intelligence chip platform and its latest A.I. chips. CNN's Anna Stewart has details.
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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Earlier this year, NVIDIA was the most valuable company in the world amidst an A.I. boom. Its chips have been pivotal to data centers, fueling the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Google.
NVIDIA's share price lost steam in recent weeks, sparked in part by the release of DeepSeek's latest reasoning model, R1, created in China at a fraction of the cost of comparable models. And it raised questions as to whether expensive hardware like NVIDIA's is really necessary.
Well in NVIDIA's annual conference, the CEO was keen to emphasize that the next waves of A.I., like agentic or reasoning A.I., and A.I.-to- power robots will open new market opportunities for the company.
JENSEN HUANG, CEO, NVIDIA: The computation requirement, the scaling law of A.I., is more resilient and in fact hyper-accelerated. The amount of computation we need at this point as a result of agentic A.I., as a result of reasoning, is easily 100 times more than we thought we needed this time last year.
STEWART: Jensen Wang also announced the Blackwell Ultra for the second half of this year. It's an upgraded version of NVIDIA's existing A.I. chip, which has been in really high demand. And plenty more to come. He teased ahead to even more advanced chips
in the pipeline. Next year, a chip called Vera Rubin, named after the astronomer, followed by the Ultra Rubin for 2027.
Plenty for investors to mull over.
Anna Stewart, CNN, London.
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CHURCH: And thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day.
"Marketplace Europe" is next, then stay tuned for "Early Start" with Rahel Solomon starting at 5 a.m. in New York, 9 a.m. in London.
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