Return to Transcripts main page
Connect the World
Bodies Left Behind As Russian Troops Retreat From Kyiv Area; Russia Calls Civilian Killings In Bucha A "Fake Attack"; U.S. Wants Russia Suspended From U.N. Human Rights Council. Aired 10-10:45a ET
Aired April 04, 2022 - 10:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:30]
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I'm Becky Anderson. It's 6:00 p.m. in Abu Dhabi. Hello and welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD. It is a new day
in Russia's brutal and unprovoked war in Ukraine. The conflict taking a merciless turn with images of atrocities that we have not seen to date.
In Bucha, a suburb just northwest of the capital of Kiev, evidence of alleged war crimes left behind following a Russian retreat. Just a short
time ago, Ukraine's president went to see it for himself saying the Russian military treats people "worse than animals."
A warning what you are about to see is disturbing. Lifeless bodies of civilians apparently killed execution style littering the streets and yards
across the battered town. These horrific scenes followed the emergence of these images showing at least 20 men lying face down on the pavement. Some
with bound hands and others collapsed on their backs. The heinous killings have drawn international outrage with many nations calling for
investigations and harsher sanctions against Moscow.
We've also learned the U.S. is pushing for the United Nations to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council. But Russia's foreign minister says
the situation in Bucha is fake and claims the bodies are staged. Moscow is now demanding the U.N. Security Council tackle the issue it calls a
provocation by Ukraine. Ukraine's president, however, calls it a genocide of his people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): Indeed. This is genocide. The elimination of the whole nation and the people. We
are the citizens of Ukraine. We have more than 100 nationalities. This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities. We are
the citizens of Ukraine. And we don't want to be subdued to the policy of Russian Federation and this is the reason we are being destroyed and
exterminated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, Ukrainian officials say they are still discovering bodies in the Kiev region following the departure of Russian forces. My colleague,
CNN's Fred Pleitgen traveled to Bucha to see firsthand the atrocities carried out in what the Kremlin calls it special military operation. I have
to warn you again, this report includes disturbing and graphic images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As Russian forces retreat from the area north of key is in their wake scenes
of utter destruction. Whole blocks of houses flattened. Ukrainian authorities saying they believe dead bodies are still lying underneath. But
here the dead also lay in the open. Ukrainian National Police showed us this mass grave in Bucha saying they believed up to 150 civilians might be
buried here, but no one knows the exact number.
People killed while the Russian army occupied this town. This is what it looks like when the hope is crushed. Vladimir has been searching for his
younger brother Dmitry. Now he's convinced Dimitri lies here, even though he can't be 100 percent sure.
The neighbor accompanying him with strong words for the Russians.
Why do you hate us so much? She asks, since the 1930s, you've been abusing Ukraine. You just want to destroy us. You want us gone. But we will be,
everything will be OK. I believe it.
Video from Bucha shows bodies in the streets after Russian forces left the area. Some images even show bodies with hands tied behind their backs. The
Russian Defense Ministry denies killing civilians and claims images of dead civilians are "fake." But we met a family just returning to their house in
Borodianka which they say was occupied by Russian soldiers. They show us the body of dead man and civilian clothes they had found in the backyard
whose hands and feet tied with severe bruises and a shell casing still laying nearby.
Russia's military appears to have suffered heavy losses before being driven out of the area around Kiev. This column of armored vehicles in Bucha
completely destroyed.
[10:05:04]
(on camera): The way the Ukrainians tell us is that the Russians were trying to go towards Kiev and they were then intercepted by Ukrainian
drones, artillery and also the Javelin anti-tank weapons. It's not clear how many Russians were killed here, but they say many were and others fled
the scene.
(voice over): A national police officer says the Russian troops were simply too arrogant. They thought they could drive on the streets and just go
through, he says, that they would be greeted as though it's all right. Maybe they think it is normal to drive around looting to destroy buildings
and to mock people. But our people didn't allow it. And now it appears all the Russians have withdrawn from here.
Ukraine says it is now in full control of the entire region around Kiev. But it is only now that the full extent of the civilian suffering is truly
coming to light.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: And that was Fred Pleitgen reporting from Bucha in Ukraine (INAUDIBLE) say leafy suburb of Kiev. It's now as you can see a shell of
its former self. The mayor says he is one of about 3000 people who stayed behind and after witnessing the carnage since the war began. He says
Ukrainians will not forgive the Russian people for the atrocities that happened. CNN's Brianna Keilar spoke to him earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Mayor, can you please tell us what you're seeing in Bucha?
MAYOR ANATOLIY FEDORUK, BUCHA, UKRAINE (through translator): Yes, I can tell you at the moment there is half the city is destroyed. There is a lot
of destroyed buildings, a lot of dead bodies on the streets and the services are working on clearing minds. Demining the streets, demining
houses and apartments. And restoring the social infrastructure of -- the city is busy now transitioning from war -- a war footing to peacetime
living.
And within the confines of the martial law that we have. We are also working on identifying the bodies of the people who were shot dead in our
city. They were indiscriminately killed by the Russian occupiers. A lot of them are elderly people. We get the impression that the Russian occupiers
have a gold the green light from Putin and Shoigu, the Russian defense minister to have a safari in Ukraine and they weren't able to take Kiev.
So, they vented their frustration on Bucha and the -- and the surrounding areas.
KEILER: I can't imagine how people there are feeling. what are they telling you?
FEDORUK: Almost everybody who survived the occupation, who went through the occupation will need specialist, psychological help to get out of the
state. We Ukrainians have seen a lot through our historic -- throughout history. But what we have seen through the period of the Russian war, which
is still ongoing and it hasn't stopped yet, that we have experienced for the first time.
We will rebuild the cities. And I'm grateful for the support from Poland and the neighboring countries and other urban communities that we are
getting Ukrainian communities. That is fantastic. We're really grateful for the support. We will rebuild the cities, but we also will keep the memory.
We will keep the memory of what our people have gone through that will never die, that will always stay with us.
KEILER: Mayor, how worried are you that Bucha is just the beginning? That we're going to be seeing this in other towns and cities?
FEDORUK: So, based on what we have seen, what the occupiers, what the Russian occupiers have done here, I think we can expect to see the same
picture on the entire territory from Kiev to Mariupol and Kherson. This will happen everywhere where the Russian occupier has stepped in. And they
cannot make progress militarily. The Ukrainian Armed Forces stopped them. So, they are torturing civilians.
And this is how they are performing. This is the so-called denazification that Russian -- that the Russian President Putin mentioned, but it's
actually dehumanization of Ukrainians.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, that's the mayor of Bucha speaking to my colleague earlier on. It will come as no surprise to you that the gruesome images from that
city are shaking the world and sparking almost universal condemnation. Many world leaders say it's more evidence that Russia is committing war crimes
in Ukraine. Ukraine's foreign minister calling for a war crimes inquiry by the International Criminal Court and likens the carnage in Bucha to the
savagery of a terror group. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[10:10:04]
DMYTRO KULEBA, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF UKRAINE: Bucha massacre is the most outrageous atrocity of the 21st century. And by saying, we all --
you refer the Bucha but we should not forget about other towns and villages in the Kiev region, which also became the crime scene for Russian army.
Without an exaggeration by what we've seen in Bucha and vicinity, we can conclude that Russia is worse than ISIS.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: NATO's chief telling CNN he is shocked by the scale of civilian attacks that have occurred since the Russian invasion began 5-1/2 weeks
ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENS STOLTENBERG, SECRETARY GENERAL, NATO: It is a brutality against civilians we haven't seen in in Europe for decades, and it's horrific, and
it's absolutely unacceptable that civilians are targeted and killed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: That's Jens Stoltenberg there. U.S. President Joe Biden has yet to weigh in on the images out of Bucha but the U.S. State Department says
"additional pressure" against Russia is coming "very soon." For his part Secretary of State Antony Blinken says his team would help document any
atrocities the Russian military is committed against Ukrainian civilian. CNN's White House Correspondent Jeremy Diamond joining me live from
Washington.
He may not have responded yet in public but Joe Biden, the U.S. president will have seen these images that are shocking the world. Jeremy, what's the
sense -- what are you being told? Is the -- is the U.S. planning to respond with tougher sanctions even if they have a painful knock-on on the U.S.
economy? What can we expect at this point?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, the Biden administration has made clear from the get go that they will continue to
apply pressure on Russia as its war of aggression in Ukraine continues. And we have seen that as Russia has committed alleged war crimes in the past,
the U.S. has responded with additional sanctions. The State Department spokesman, Ned Price saying that additional pressure will come as a result
of these atrocities that we are now witnessing and that the world is witnessed to in Bucha and other parts of Ukraine.
The Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also reacting to these images coming out of Bucha yesterday, calling them a punch to the gut and saying that
it's important that the world not be desensitized, not normalized the conduct that we are seeing in Ukraine, allegedly by Russian forces. He said
that there needs to be and that there will be accountability. We know that the United States has already been helping to collect and gather evidence
of war crimes in Ukraine.
The U.S. government's official position is that it believes that Russia has indeed committed war crimes in Ukraine. And so, they will continue to
gather evidence to that effect. The question is, what kinds of additional sanctions, what kind of additional pressure will the U.S. and its allies
bring to bear? I think that regardless of what that pressure is, it's clear that it will come in coordination with the U.S.'s European allies as we
have seen throughout this effort to ratchet up sanctions on Russia.
One concrete thing that we do know is coming, U.N. -- the US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the U.S. is going to
push the U.N. to expel Russia from the Human Rights Council. That will be perhaps the first concrete response that we will see from the U.S. and the
rest of the world. Becky?
ANDERSON: Jeremy Diamond is in Washington. Thank you, Jeremy. A Ukrainian journalist is heartbroken about the horror and devastation in her country.
Iryna Matviyishyn tweets, reading testimonies and seeing pictures of Russian war crimes, I can't find words to write about it. It's just a
growing emptiness inside. I know my Ukrainian colleagues are going through the same. We have to do our job while seeing our people as being
exterminated again.
Iryna Matviyishyn joins us now live from Lviv. And our hearts go out to you, your family, your friends, your colleagues, who are, as you rightly
point out trying to cover this story, whilst you all live through it. The world is reacting in horror to the images coming out of Bucha. Is there any
way to explain why Russian shot soldiers have done, what they've done?
IRYNA MATVIYISHYN, UKRAINIAN JOURNALIST: Thank you for having me. Indeed, what we see is terrifying. And even though we have historical precedents,
and we know what Russian army is capable of, what we've heard from our grandparents and probably writing in books is now becoming a reality again.
[10:15:03]
MATVIYISHYN: So, it's not anything new but of course we're shocked because we live in a civilized world and nobody expected that they haven't changed
since Stalin's times and the methods are the same. So, what they are doing is basically continuing the policy of genocide against Ukrainians, which
did not succeed -- succeeded -- which did not succeed completely in the past century.
All the atrocities we're seeing, killing children raping kids, women, girls under 10 years old, killing civilians and preventing birth is genocide,
even though it's not legally called like that. But we know what it is. And we already see evidence of Russian propagandists who are saying that this -
- that Ukraine should not exist and Ukrainians should be exterminated because they are Nazis, as they say.
ANDERSON: As I witnessed the reporting from my colleagues, your colleagues and others in the Ukrainian and international pressure of the scenes in
Bucha, I was reflecting on the fact that only 5-1/2 weeks ago when this war began, you know, many people outside of Ukraine couldn't believe that there
was a possibility that Russian soldiers would reach the suburbs of Kiev. I'm just wondering whether you can just reflect on how you feel at this
point.
MATVIYISHYN: Well, it's very hard to accept this reality, even though it's been more than a month right now. And we realize we live in the war. And we
have to adapt somehow to these conditions and do our best in our places, in our - what is in our capacity to stop all this. And of course, it's
difficult to accept this reality. But I think, right now Ukrainians are trying to adapt to these conditions to be more efficient and not to get
like, drained and depressed in this situation.
Even though with the -- with the evidence from Bucha and from other towns, all these terrible news, they don't help. And of course, it affects us a
lot. It doesn't help us to adapt and accept this war.
ANDERSON: Do you worry that what we have witnessed in Buddha could have been or could be replicated elsewhere in Ukraine?
MATVIYISHYN: Well, it's already replicated. What we're seeing right now, it's not only Bucha, it's just this liberated towns. Bucha, Irpin and not -
- Chernihiv that we can see what happened there. But many towns and villages are still occupied. And we already read reports from other places
all around Ukraine where Russian occupiers are committing these atrocities. We already hear the same examples of torture, rape and everything we --
we've seen in Bucha.
So, it's not like a one town and we're going to see more of this when other cities and towns are liberated. And we already know that's happening in
Mariupol.
ANDERSON: Yes. Iryna, we mustn't normalize this. We mustn't allow that to happen. Accountability is so important at this point. Your focus is on
human rights. The U.S. is seeking Russia's removal from the U.N.'s Human Rights Council. Your reaction? I mean, clearly, that is not enough at this
point. Is that a good start at this point?
MATVIYISHYN: Yes. I think there's no place for Russia in the U.N. Human Rights Council because Russia does not respect any human rights. And we
don't see any changes in their policy. So many times, Ukrainians were trying to speak to their Russian colleagues or Russian relatives,
politicians were trying to speak to Russian leaders, but it's useless and all these atrocities continue.
And we're allowing them to stay in the such institutions, will legitimize their votes and their right to make decisions which can actually endanger
human lives.
ANDERSON: Iryna, please carry on the work that you are doing. You've explained how difficult it is for you and your colleagues. But we salute
you for the work that you're doing. Thank you very much indeed for joining us, spending the time with us just a few minutes today. We wish you the
best.
MATVIYISHYN: Thank you.
ANDERSON: For a while at least, Odessa was spared but now Russian airstrikes have hit the strategic port city.
[10:20:07]
ANDERSON: Ahead, our Ed Lavandera on what is next for those who have been trying to keep up a semblance of normal life there.
Plus, the family of a missing journalist in Ukraine is waiting in agony to hear from her again and they are holding Russia responsible.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: The port city of Odessa along the Black Sea in Ukraine is seeing its worst fears come true.
A regional military spokesperson has confirmed Russian airstrikes hit the city early on Sunday. They said several missiles struck one of the
districts. And the CNN crew on the ground saw a fuel depo up in flames. No casualties have been reported. Our Ed Lavandera is there. And he's been
speaking with people who've been trying to keep some semblance, Ed, of normal life. What are they telling you?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Becky. Well, you know many people here in Odessa had been enjoying several days of quiet. That knowing that
at any moment, things could change. And with two rounds of airstrikes on a Sunday, that's exactly what has happened here in Odessa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice over): The Kanishka market is where you come to trade gossip and rumors, dollars for Ukrainian cash or hunt down underground rare
books. It's also where a group of college friends come for coffee and a sense of peace.
(on camera): I want to ask you with everything going on in Ukraine, everything here seems so normal.
TAIMUR KRAVCHENKO, LAW STUDENT: Now it's home and we can, like, live a normal life. But that's for now, we don't know what's going to be tomorrow
or in a week.
LAVANDERA (on camera): It looks normal. But is it really normal?
KRAVCHENKO: Inside everyone is afraid. If something's going to happen Odessa, of course, we'll protect our city. But right now, we can just sit
and live normal life.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Do navigate the streets of Odessa, you see the remaining residents trying to go about their daily lives. But a large part
of the city's historic center is transformed into a fortified zone with anti-tank barricades, bracing for an amphibious attack by Russian troops
from the Black Sea. It's a ghost town.
(on camera): The residents of Odessa would normally be preparing to hold what is known as the April Fool's parade on this street in the heart of the
city. It's a parade that started years ago in response to Soviet censorship. But now, this area of Odessa is completely fortified. And this
year, there will be no parade.
(voice over): Instead, civilian volunteers and activists are mobilizing to support the war effort.
(on camera): So, we're in a bomb shelter in Odessa. And this is where they're making bulletproof vests.
[10:25:01]
(voice-over): We meet this man sealing the steel plates of homemade armored vests for frontline soldiers. He asked that we call him Martine (ph).
(on camera): We've heard that Russian forces are leaving Kyiv. Are you concerned? And do you think that they're going to start coming back toward
Odessa?
(voice over): We've already beat their ass. We will do it again, he tells me.
Russian naval ships remained stationed off the coast of Odessa in the Black Sea. The concern here is the war will intensify in the South.
Before the war, Martine worked as a professional scuba diver, he defiantly says he looks forward to exploring the underwater wreckage of those sunken
Russian ships as a diver when the war is over.
On a street corner, we find dozens of displaced families who have escaped to Odessa. They're from the worst war zones hoping to find food and
clothing.
Olga Petkovich is waiting with five of her six children.
(on camera): So, you come from a village that was surrounded by Russian soldiers. You're in the crossfire. How frightening was that?
(voice-over): I was scared for the children most of all, she tells me.
Olga says her family had to walk through a forest to escape shelling. Tears well up in her eyes as her husband tells us Russian soldiers broke into
their homes taking everything they could from the families in their village.
OLGA PETKOVICH, DISPLACED WAR VICTIM (through translator): When we came here, the volunteers told us to say what we need, but I'm ashamed. I've
worked all my life and never asked anyone for anything. And now I have to ask.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Her little girl wipes away her mother's tears.
Mother, why are you crying, the girl asks. Because they were shelling us a lot, Olga tells her.
Not far from where we met Olga's family, we notice a father teaching his daughter how to ride a bike, a poignant moment in the midst of a surreal
world.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
LAVANDERO: And Becky as, you know, the worst nightmares of the people who were speaking with their had come true and really kind of speaks to just
what they know to be true in this moment that here in Odessa in this port city, things can change in a second's notice. Becky?
ANDERSON: Ed Lavandera on the ground for you. Ed, Thank you.
Well, Ukrainian journalist and Mother missing now for 10 days. Russia denies it's involved in her disappearance but a family isn't buying it.
And people in Ukraine's second largest city now fearing the horrors of Bucha could happen there too.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:30:23]
ANDERSON: Welcome back. It's half hour 6:00 here in the UAE. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD with me Becky Anderson. Well, we begin this half
hour with disturbing claims from Ukraine's president. He says a genocide is taking place in his country. This comes as Russian forces withdrawal from
areas around Ukraine's capital revealing what is a brutal aftermath. In the last few hours, President Zelenskyy see for himself the alleged atrocities
in the town of Bucha. He says, the world needs to see what happened there.
Little more knew the images that we are about to show you are graphic. Let me pause for a moment. Well, this is what remained in Bucha. After
Ukrainian forces retook the town, bodies in the street, some of them apparently killed execution style. And our own CNN teams saw mass graves.
The mayor claiming as many as 300 people have been buried that way. Moscow denying the allegations of civilian killings, claiming the videos are fake.
Meanwhile, as Russian troops refocus their assault on Ukraine south. Several missiles have hit one district in the port city of Odessa. One
person was killed, five injured in early morning missile strikes that hits Mykolaiv. Well, the gruesome images from Bucha are sparking international
condemnation. The U.S .will ask the United Nations to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council calling Moscow's participation a " fast." And one
Ukrainian lawmaker is calling on the world to deliver another economic blow to Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OLEKSIY GONCHARENKO, PEOPLE'S DEPUTY OF UKRAINE: In each gallon of Russian oil, there is Ukrainian blood. In each cubic meter of Russian gas, there is
Ukrainian blood. Is it normal for civilized countries to buy blood of innocent people and to pay for this? So, I address to Germans, to French
and to their companies to stop work in Russian Federation. Stop paying taxes in their budget and stop. That is the most important. Stop buying
Russian oil and gas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, Human Rights Watch says that Russian forces have also committed war crimes against civilians in Kharkiv. CNN Chief International
Anchor Christiane Amanpour emerged from a shelter there and described the situation to CNNs Brianna Keilar.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: We came out of the shelter where I was trying to report from, you know, about half an hour ago
with you where we've seen so many people still 14 days into this war sheltering. The reason is because of this kind of damage. And there has
been this kind of damage all over Central Kharkiv for the last 40 days. And there's literally almost like a ghost town.
Now this is the second biggest city. We're just panning the camera around to show you. These are main roads in the center of this city. And
everything that we can see is boarded up. You might be able to hear a little in the distance. We've been hearing the crump, crump of incoming and
some outgoing artillery, literally ever since we've been here. We're not exactly sure what the -- what the, you know, destination is.
We saw a little bit of evidence this morning in a residential neighborhood of a mortar shell that hit last night. And according to the authorities
here, just in that neighborhood, there was something like 34 casualties and seven deaths. That's just in one Sunday afternoon in one residential
neighborhood. So, people in this, the second city of Ukraine are really concerned A, about what their fate might be, as the Russians redeploy and
move from Kiev.
B, they certainly don't want to be victims. So, what we're seeing unfold in the areas of Russian occupation around Kiev now that they are with
retreating from there and the full horrors are being demonstrated. So, here about a third of the population has fled according to local authorities.
There is practically no business that we can -- we can see here at all, maybe some gas stations.
But unlike Kiev, it hasn't even come back to normal in small areas. There aren't restaurants or cafes that we've been able to see in the last 36
hours. We have been to several of these underground subway stations where lots and lots of people remain. And they've turned them almost into
neighborhoods, almost into semi-permanent homes underground because people say that is the only safe area including children, they say that's only
where they feel safe.
So, today we saw a civil defense team going around various metro stations, teaching even children about what to recognize, what different ordinance
looks like, what not to touch if they happen to be outside and see something lying on the ground.
[10:35:06]
AMANPOUR: They were even showing how to deal with a chemical attack. Imagine that children being shown masks and how to deal, you know, with a
chemical attack and basic first aid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Christiane Amanpour reporting there. Well, treating the wounded in any form is and act protected under the Geneva Convention. But the
family of a Ukrainian journalist, she's a mother as well, claims she was detained by Russian soldiers for doing just that. They haven't heard from
her in over a week. CNN's Ivan Watson has their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Masha (ph) plays by the banks of the Dnieper River under the watchful eye of her
grandmother. In a few days, she'll be turning four but her mother may not be there to celebrate. Idina (ph) Dubchenko is missing, taken captive her
family says by the Russian military.
The family last heard from Idina on March 26 when she called from her home in the Russian occupied village of Berezovka, saying Russian soldiers had
searched her house.
ALEXANDRA DUBCHENKO, MISSING JOURANLIST'S SISTER (through translator): She was very frightened. She told us that to the Russian soldiers that we know
everything about you, and you should be short on the support for what you did.
WATSON: The next day. Neighbors say the Russians returned and detained Idina who works as a freelance journalist. They haven't heard from her
since.
DUBCHENKO: We don't know where she is right now. We have no information about her.
WATSON: The alleged Russian abduction of Idina Dubchenko fits a broader pattern. Ukraine's Commissioner for Human Rights accuses Russian forces of
detaining at least 55 civilians since invading Ukraine on February 24th. A Kremlin spokesman has told CNN, he's not aware of cases of disappearances
but adds that they should be examined carefully. At least 11 detained civilians are elected mayors like Ivan Fedorov.
A security camera caught Russian troops kidnapping Federov on March 11th in the Russian-occupied town of Mlitopol. He says he was later released in a
prisoner exchange for nine captive Russian soldiers.
I would happily offer myself in a prisoner exchange for her freedom, Idina's mother Larissa says. Just let her go. She has a child.
Larissa and her husband tried to rescue Idina from her Russian-0occupied village on March 7th.
WATSON: This is your mother's car.
But they were forced to turn back after gunfire shattered their car window.
(on camera): Larissa showing me a bullet and casing from around that she says hit her car on March 7th when she tried to reach the village that her
daughter lives in. She says Russian soldiers opened fire on her vehicle.
(voice over): At some point in the first weeks of the war he took in a wounded Ukrainian soldier.
DUBCHENKO: Idina told me on the phone that this military guy was at home that she was threatened him changing his bandages.
WATSON: When Russian troops searched Idina's house on March 26th, Alexandria says they detained the wounded Ukrainian.
DUBCHENKO: He was wounded in the arm and the leg, they handcuffed him and took him out right away.
WATSON: On March 28th, after Idina's alleged abduction, her mother made it safely to the occupied village. She says the Russian officer told her that
Idina had been taken to the Russian-backed separatists city of Donetsk to be tried in court for sheltering the wounded Ukrainian soldier. But that's
not a crime. According to international laws of war.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first Geneva Convention is a convention that protects wounded and sick soldiers in the field
WATSON: If a civilian treats a wounded combatant, according to the Geneva Convention, is that allowed?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is not only allowed, it is also protected. Article 18 of the first Geneva Convention is crystal clear about it and
says that no one may be molested or convicted for treating wounded.
WATSON: CNN reached out to Russia's Ministry of Defense regarding the alleged detention of Idina Dubchenko. The ministry never replied. Idina's
family now wait in terrifying limbo.
CORDULA DROEGE, CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER, INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (through translator): Masha often asks, where is mama everyday. I
say, she's coming soon. She's coming tomorrow. She'll be here in an hour or two.
WATSON: The truth is, no one here knows when Masha will see her mother again.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:41:52]
ANDERSON: The Masters golf tournament this year already turning into a cliffhanger and it hasn't even begun. Tiger Woods in Augusta, Georgia
preparing for his sixth championship at the famed national course. But the big question is, will he actually compete? World Sport's Alex Thomas is
with us. We might not know the answer to that until just before the start of the tournament as I understand it.
ALEX THOMAS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: This is just really underlines, Becky, how iconic Tiger Woods is. An athlete that transcends golf, transcends sport,
even we thought it's miraculous when he won the Masters back in 2019 after all his problems of injuries and surgeries to come back now and even play
in it after the almost life-threatening car crashed less than a year ago. It would be astonishing. That's why it's overshadowing everything else.
We're live to Augusta National in just a moment.
ANDERSON: Of course, you are. That's World Sport. Alex is the host of that and that starts after this short break. We're back top of the hour for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WORLD SPORT)
END
