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UN: 800,000 Plus Refugees Have Left Ukraine Since Russian Invasion; Biden: United Front Is "Inflicting Pain On Russia" As Allies "United"; Biden Underscores Unity Against Russia Among U.S. And Allies. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 02, 2022 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, night has fallen again here. And with that comes fears of renewed aerial bombardment by the Russians, which is why there's so many lights out all across the city and in the region. That's why you can't really see anything behind me. And we're using just one light to come on the air with you. But we did go to that area today. That is an area of Kyiv called Babin Yar. And for many, that is a name that is just synonymous with horror. It is the site of one of the Holocaust, worse massacres, some 33,000 Jews killed just over two days in 1941. And that is where we saw yesterday's bombing, bombing by a Russian army led by President Putin who has said that his goal is to denazify Ukraine.

And right near that memorial and we should say the memorial itself was unharmed. It was not -- there was no damage done to it. But nearby, there were some five people killed, five civilians killed on an attack that appeared to be targeted at the T.V. tower, it's a huge communications tower, Russia making clear that they are expanding their operations to include not just, you know, military targets, but also civilian and security communications targets.

But there was a hail of missiles, according to the guards on the ground there that hit not only the tower, but civilian buildings nearby. We went past a gym that still had a fire burning it almost 24 hours later. Just next door to that was a garage and an autoparts store, where we spoke with the owner who she and her employees went down into the basement into the shelter when those rockets started raining down.

She said that unlike other stores in Kyiv, many of which are closed, she stayed open because she sells car parts and people need to drive their cars right now. So as -- so, you know, John, we have heard over and over again from the Kremlin that they are not targeting civilians. They aren't targeting residences or civilian infrastructure. But it is clear that that is not the case that Ukrainian civilians are being hit and they are being killed. John?

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Those painful images do not lie, they speak a horrible truth. Alex Marquardt very important reporting for us near Kyiv, appreciate it very much. Here's another way to look at this sad story. More than 800,000 people have now fled Ukraine amid Russia's brutal attack. United Nations officials warn it this could be Europe's largest refugee crisis this century. You see on the map there, where those folks are fleeing from. And our CNN Sara Sidner joins me now checkpoint at the Polish- Ukrainian border where she has been getting a firsthand look at this incredible sadness. Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, it is snowing now, which actually means it's warmer than it has been. It has been below freezing for many of these days, as people are trying to get to safety. I want to give you a look at what's happening. You will see people with signs like this, that are saying like, look, we can help you find a place if you need to find somewhere to live or go or we have a room for you. But what you're seeing are vans, you're seeing huge buses, and they are filled with people who have just come over the border and have been taken here which is kind of been turned into a refugee camp, if you will, in Przemysl, Poland, which is about seven kilometers or three or four miles up from the border with Ukraine.

And you can see like, look, I mean, there are people here with their signs to help and welcome Ukrainians. But there are also Ukrainians here of course, waiting to try and find somewhere to live. The Polish people, these are all volunteers. They got together on Facebook. They got together on different social media apps and they came together as strangers to help Ukrainians. So the people that have been here for a week, a week now didn't know each other but they are all gathering just to help their Ukrainian brothers and sisters.

I do want to let you know what it is like for families as they're crossing this border. What we are seeing as mostly women and children. What we are seeing as women and children with maybe one bag each, every now and then a dog, and they are leaving their husbands behind, the young women and children because the husbands have to stay and they're staying to fight.

Here is just one refugee's story, a bit of her story about what this has all been like for her as she leaves the land she loves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLGA SHEVCHENKO, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE: It's so difficult. I cannot tell how it's difficult is feeling because that you lose your life, you know, and to hear, I don't know what to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: That mother had brought her nine-year-old over. Her husband is still in Ukraine, fighting with whatever he has. He is not a soldier. He is just a man. He is just a resident, but he wants to stay and fight for his country. Just lastly, there is help for people. The E.U. is saying that about three quarters of those 800,000 people have come here to Poland. And that no one should be discriminated against. They said they have been clearing the border as fast as they can just overnight. John?

[12:35:16]

KING: Sara Sidner at this critical, critical reporting, the worst of humanity sometimes does bring out the best in humanity. Sara, appreciate that reporting.

Up next for us, oil prices surged, natural gas prices soar as well. The war in Ukraine is roiling energy markets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:12]

KING: President Biden today says he is not ruling out a ban on Russian oil and gas imports to the United States. President spoke with reporters as he left the White House this morning, you see it there for a trip to Wisconsin. The trip is meant to highlight the State of the Union address the President delivered last night. But the questions there outside the White House and the speech itself last night remind us this showdown with Vladimir Putin is now front and center.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you considering banning Russian oil imports?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nothing is off the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Nothing is off the table. Kaitlan Collins, you cover the White House for us. There's been the strategy of, you know, incrementally escalating the sanctions, that would be a big one. It would hurt Russia, it would also hurt Americans.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And that's why they haven't taken that step yet. But we are noticing a pattern here where the White House is talking about certain options that we've asked them about. They sound like they're off the table, and then all of a sudden they are not. And they are done in close coordination with allies. I think of sanctioning Putin, which was something that last week when we were talking to President Biden at that press conference, he wasn't ready to take that step yet.

Then the next day, they went after that. SWIFT removing them from the banking system going after certain banks, they went after that, shortly thereafter. This seems like something where they're talking about it behind the scenes. They're obviously talking about the consequences and the collateral damage that it would cause but the idea that they may need to take that step, I think it was very notable the way President Biden pause there.

And of course, they're nowhere near this happening behind the scenes right now. But I don't think that it rules that out. It does speak to the level of how they're ratcheting things up here, including last night with that decision, which they had initially been pretty far from privately which was banning Russian aircraft from U.S. airspace. And then of course, last night, President Biden announced they were doing that.

KING: And in that speech last night, part of the President's message was to Vladimir Putin. This is the speech always to the American people, his speech to the world, but he essentially looking Vladimir Putin in the eye and saying you didn't think I could assemble a world coalition and that we would hold against you. I did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Six days ago, Russia's Vladimir Putin sought to shake the very foundations of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways but he badly miscalculated. He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead, he met with a wall of strength he never anticipated or imagined. He met the Ukrainian people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: There is credit to the President and to those who say he should have gone with more aggressive sanctions more quickly, The White House says, and we would have lost some of the allies. And the key here is to keep everybody together. The challenge now, though, is going to sustain this for weeks and perhaps months and maybe even longer.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, to Kaitlan's point, it seems that the White House's strategy to some extent has been to actually wait until Europe gets there first before announcing that they're going to go do something in part because this White House does not believe that going out on their own will have the same effect as it would if the whole world, you know, the western world is united against Putin.

And I think that that has actually been relatively successful. You've had Germany and other European nations doing things that would have been unthinkable just a few months ago. And it's necessary, because to your point, this is going to go on for some time. The President made it clear in his speech last night, there's not necessarily -- he is not expecting this to be an easy, quick, happy ending in Ukraine. He is expecting this to go on for some time. The sanctions will take some time. And everybody needs to be on the same page in order for it to be effective.

BIDEN: Because Vladimir Putin does not operate like most people in the sense that you would think, oh, the United Nations just condemn me the sanctions are actually hurting my economy. The world is united against me. Maybe I should rethink this. But nobody expects that to happen from Russia's Putin. You write today this, wasn't enough, meaning the President's speech last night telling the American people this is going to be hard. If Putin is indeed this century's Hitler, then the answer very likely is the measures taken in the past week, which seemed modest in contrast with what inevitably comes next. But Biden's speech did not go there. Perhaps it did not have to not yet.

That is the question. We're all waiting. What does Putin do next? There are more negotiations. No one expects them to get anywhere. There are some people worried you back Putin into a corner, then you get a dangerous reaction. What next? What must the President have to have in the file about what he might have to do next?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, you know, John, I think you're absolutely right to spotlight the question of Vladimir Putin is not subject to pressures in the way that a Western politician might be. And, you know, what I've observed over the last 20 years is a politician and a leader who chooses to escalate, who, when challenged or appearing weak, wants to appear strong, no matter what the cost, and that's why you have devastation in the wars that he's previously launched in places like Chechnya and in Aleppo and Syria. And so that's why you're seeing increasing military pressure indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets, on civilians.

[12:45:08]

It's likely that he's going to increase rather than decrease that. And remember, Putin started this war not only with a ridiculous pretext, but with maximalist demands, demands that never meant there was a serious diplomatic conversation beforehand. And I think that's part of the reason why President Biden, the sanctions couldn't have probably made a difference beforehand because Vladimir Putin decided to make this invasion regardless.

KING: Regardless, so we're going to continue the conversation just a moment.

Up next for us, more on the President's new warning to Putin and how the war in Ukraine reshaped the rest of last night's address.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:50:22]

KING: In a word, stalled, that is the latest assessment from a senior U.S. defense official on that massive 40-mile long military convoy to the north on the outskirts of Kyiv, U.S. official says it is not moving. And U.S. official says there is a worsening shortage of food and fuel among the Russian ranks. We will keep an eye on that.

Last night speech, a show of American unity was the President's major goal in the big State of the Union speech. And of course, it's a giant challenge given the very fractured state of American politics. So just moments in, this guaranteed standing ovation moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Ukrainian Ambassador of the United States is here tonight sitting with the First Lady. Let each of us here, if you're able to stand, stand and send an unmistakable signal to the world and Ukraine. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Susan Glasser, Kaitlan Collins, Abby Phillip back with me. That was a big part of what the President wants to do. Vladimir Putin you thought were fractured, you thought were dysfunctional, you thought I can't hold the country together to stare you down. Yes, I can. PHILLIP: Yes, I mean, you would be forgiven for wondering if maybe that could still happen in this day and age when we are so divided as we are. But on this issue in the vast majority of both political parties, there is unanimity on the issue of Ukraine. And so that was really just an easy one. It was it was T-ball for Joe Biden. But it's important because I do think he needs to fulfill that promise too, to the American public, that in moments like this, he can unite America. And that Putin who has worked really hard to divide this country in past elections won't succeed. So it's both a domestic and international message for Biden.

KING: Part of the strategy for weeks leading up to the actual invasion was for the U.S. government to essentially leak its intelligence, share its intelligence with governments around the world, but then also discuss it publicly. Vladimir Putin is building up troops, Vladimir Putin going to invade, that Vladimir Putin's going to do this, which makes it chilling because he did all those things. When you hear the United States Ambassador to the United Nations this morning saying, Vladimir Putin has sent vacuum bombs and cluster bombs into Ukraine.

COLLINS: Yes, it's the first time we've seen that confirmed on the record from a U.S. government official, I believe, and to hear her say it which we know that experts had believe that's what they were seeing on the ground when they're seeing these videos that are posted online. But it does show that and I think that's why it made something President Biden said as he was leaving the White House so interesting when he said he wasn't ready to say yet, if President Putin has committed war crimes in his view, that is something that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this morning. We know President Zelenskyy in Ukraine has said he believes that but Linda Thomas-Greenfield going before the United Nations, talking about the weapons that they're using, saying that they have completely gone against what the United Nations stands for, and also sending a message directly to Russian troops saying do not commit war crimes. She was telling them that they were being lied to. It was a very powerful speech, just like a very powerful moment last night inviting the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. to sit in the First Lady's box.

KING: And the question is, if you assume that Putin is yet again playing a long game again, he's been 10 years taking smaller bites out of Ukraine now he wants the whole thing is just the West have the long view. We just show you just today, oil hitting eight year high $113 a barrel. Why do I mention that in the middle of a standoff with Vladimir Putin, because that hits everybody's pocketbooks. Do the Germans hold out? Do other European countries hold out? Do Americans continue to support the president if it means a higher oil gas prices here?

There is a remarkable coalition right now. The question is you have a lot of experience with this. Can -- will it be there six months from now and six months from then and six months from then if that's what it takes?

GLASSER: Well, that's very John. Vladimir Putin is betting on American weakness. And that probably is one reason why he made this miscalculation as President Biden said in the first place, because he believed that we were so divided against ourselves and divided from our allies, that we wouldn't stand firm. Now, he thinks well, the cost of, you know, energy prices going up additional inflation additional stress on are already really frankly pretty teetering a system here in the United States that he can outlast us, because he doesn't have to worry as much about things like public opinion. Remember, there's a huge domestic crackdown happening in Russia as well. Watch that space.

[12:54:30]

KING: Watch that space, very important. To that point, to that point, the Feds now targeting Russian oligarchs going after their yachts, jets, real estate, trying to put more pressure on Vladimir Putin, new details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: A new Justice Department unit is launching today to target Russian oligarchs, their yachts, their real estate holdings and other assets. The new task force will be called KleptoCapture. It include federal prosecutors, agents, and experts in money laundering tax enforcement and national security investigations.

And finally, a name you may not know but maybe we'll hear more about in the days ahead, Congresswoman Victoria Spartz. She's the first Ukrainian born member of Congress. She showed her support. You see it last night. They're wearing a yellow dress, blue blazer, last night State of the Union. The freshmen Republican wants stiffer sanctions against Ukraine and the United States to send even more weapons to help Ukrainians fight.

Her 95-year-old grandmother lives several hours north of Kyiv. Through tears she told CNN quote, I think we need to understand the situation in Ukraine. It is not a war, it's a genocide of Ukrainian people by a crazy man who cannot get over that Ukrainian people do not want to be with the Soviet Union.

[13:00:10]

Thanks for your time today in INSIDE POLITICS. Hope to see you again tomorrow. Don't forget, you can also listen to our podcast. Anderson Cooper, Ana Cabrera pick up our coverage right now.