U.S. & Western Officials: Putin Could Formally Declare War On Ukraine As Soon As May 9

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

News

3.7 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2022

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

U.S. and Western officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin could officially declare war on Ukraine as soon as May 9, also known as Russia’s “Victory Day” which commemorates the Russian’s defeat of the Nazis in 1945. Up until now, Russian officials have insisted that the conflict was only a “special military operation.” Retired Brig. Gen. Peter Zwack joins AC360 to discuss what Putin’s declaration means and how it could affect the war. Plus, a special grand jury has been selected in the Fulton County probe that’s investigating whether former President Trump and his allies committed any crimes in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. In an exclusive interview with AC360, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis tells Anderson Cooper that 50 people have already voluntarily agreed to talk to the grand jury. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good evening from Key.
0:02.8	There's a lot of breaking news involving the war here in Ukraine that we want to get to,
0:06.5	even as Ukraine appears to have had some success against Russian forces in the east.
0:11.3	It's evacuation of civilians from a massive steel plant in the battered port city of Marialpul
0:16.3	has stalled again, because of continued Russian bombardments that Ukrainian officials.
0:21.4	It's one of two main evacuation efforts in and around the city.
0:24.8	We'll get to that in a moment because it's a short time ago we learned that U.S. and Western
0:28.9	officials believe Vladimir Putin could soon formally declare war on Ukraine, which might
0:34.3	sound ridiculous when you first hear it because Russia has been waging a brutal war against
0:38.7	Ukraine for more than 10 weeks now.
0:40.6	But Vladimir Putin actually declaring it could mark a real change on the battlefield.
0:45.5	Our chief White House correspondent, Kaelin Collins, joins us with the latest on that.
0:49.2	So one more you're learning about this possible declaration.
0:52.4	So, Aiders, and this is something that officials here at the White House and inside the
0:56.2	Biden administration believe could happen as soon as May 9th, obviously that's a week
1:00.2	from today.
1:01.4	And the reason that date is significant is because it's known as Victory Day inside of Russia.
1:06.2	It is incredibly important to them.
1:07.7	It is remembered, of course, as the time that they defeated Nazi Germany.
1:11.3	And so it's very important to Putin and to the Russian people significant in a military
1:16.3	way, but also it could be significant because if Putin does use this day to try to put a
1:21.7	more positive light on their invasion of Ukraine so far, given they haven't had a lot
	...

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