Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Russian and U.S. Delegations Discuss Conflict in Ukraine; At Least 18 Injured as Plane Flips After Landing; Pope Remains Hospitalized; U.S. Judge Expected to Rule on Case that Could Rein in Musk. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 18, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump is keeping a close eye on Saudi Arabia, where three of his top administration officials are meeting with their Russian counterparts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We cannot recognize anything or any agreements about us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All 80 people have escaped with their lives from Delta Airlines flight 4819.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It happens so quickly, right? You know, it's this like super loud bang, and then everything just goes literally sideways.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Vatican is saying in a statement that the Pope is in a stable condition, that he continues to be without a fever and is continuing the prescribed therapy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is very determined and he is like, he thinks that he's here not to rest, not to go on with his job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world and the United States. I'm Christina Macfarlane. It's Tuesday, February 18th, 8 a.m. here in London and noon in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. and Russia are now speaking face to face about the conflict in Ukraine nearly three years after it began.

The U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, are meeting behind closed doors with their delegations. This visit could lay the groundwork for a potential meeting between President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Ukraine's leader is among the European leaders left out of the Riyadh talks.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will instead be meeting with the Turkish president in the hours ahead to discuss a strategic partnership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Ukraine perceives any negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine as those with no results. We cannot recognize anything or any agreements about us without us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: CNN's Fred Pleitgen has been following all of this and joins us now from Moscow. Good to see you, Fred.

So these talks now underway in Riyadh. And Russia heading into these meetings have made it very clear that they intend to get more out of it than just peace with Ukraine.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, and that's certainly something where the writing is really on the wall, if you will, Christina. And it was interesting yesterday or last night when the Russians landed in Riyadh, one of the lead negotiators, Yuri Ushakov, he was asked by Russian state TV what exactly their goal was in all of this, in this whole process, and he said a normalization of relations between Russia and the United States.

So certainly that seems like a lot more than the stated goal of the Trump administration, where, for instance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been saying that it is Donald Trump's, President Trump's desire to end the Ukraine war as fast as possible.

For the Russians, if you look at some of the readouts from statements that we've been getting over the past couple of days, they list that as one of the goals to find a resolution to the Ukraine conflict. But then there are other things for them on the table as well. One of them, of course, economic normalization. And the other thing is sanctions relief, which is also a huge deal for the Russians as well.

And if we look at some of the video that we're seeing on our screen right now, it is actually a pretty historic meeting that's going on there in Riyadh. We can see in the room on the one side, you see Yuri Ushakov and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.

On the other side, Mike Waltz, National Security Advisor, Secretary of State Rubio. And of course, Steve Witkoff, the president's advisor for the Middle East. And then the Saudi mediators as well.

So this is definitely a meeting where both sides essentially are saying, even though the goals that they've stated might be different, that it is very exploratory. It is the first time that the United States and Russia are meeting face to face in several years. And so there are many issues that the two want to discuss.

But the most important for the Russians, and certainly to an extent also for the Americans as well, is trying to get a meeting going as fast as possible, a direct face-to-face meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both sides have said that they are committed to that. And the Russians are saying that they believe that a meeting like that could happen very quickly.

The Kremlin this past week has said that it could happen as early as within a couple of weeks. But certainly that is the stated goal of the negotiations that are going on right now.

One of the interesting things that we followed sort of this morning, Christina, is that one of the negotiators for the Russian side, Kirill Dmitriev, of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, he spoke to Russian state TV.

[04:05:02]

And there, of course, from his perspective, he deals with economic issues, saying that that is one of the important things for them to get back on track. But he also said that he believes that the two sides are there to listen to one another. The Russians saying they believe that the Trump administration is trying to see their point of view a lot more than the Biden administration, of course, did that over the past couple of years since Russia's full-on invasion of Ukraine.

So certainly the atmosphere there on the ground, from everything that we've been seeing, appears to be friendly and constructive between the two sides. And the Russians certainly hoping that all of this concern could turn into a larger process that at the end of it could bring them major sanctions relief, a normalization of relations both in the economic and also in the diplomatic sphere -- Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yes, that meeting, historic, really, as you say, Fred, underway now, will, of course, continue to follow it very closely. Fred Pleitgen there live from Moscow for now. Thank you.

And we should hear more in the coming hours about the frightening plane crash in Toronto that left at least 18 people injured. The Delta flight carrying 80 people from Minneapolis made a hard landing in windy and snowy conditions. Passengers say the plane flipped on its side and turned upside down as a large fireball erupted outside the aircraft. At least one of the wings was shorn off. Everyone on board made it out safely.

One passenger who recorded the evacuation described the ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE KOUKOV, PASSENGER: We didn't really know anything was the matter, or at least I didn't, until like the second we hit the ground, there was no like real indication of anything. And then, yes, we hit the ground and we were sideways and then we were upside down hanging like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: It's crazy. More now from CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: This crash so easily could have been much worse. Remember, it wasn't even three weeks ago that we were talking about the crash over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., where all 67 people were killed. Now all 80 people have escaped with their lives from a Delta Airlines flight 4819 on its way from Minneapolis to Toronto Pearson International Airport landed around 2:13 p.m. Eastern time on Monday when apparently the plane on landing crashed cartwheeled onto its back.

Passengers in a dark and on fire passenger cabin had to evacuate through one of the doors on the right side. Also, one of the emergency overwing exits now turned into an underwing exit if the right wing was still there.

Investigators very much have their work cut out for them. They always look at the airplane, the environment, and the pilots. The airplane, not all that abnormal, a CRJ900 completely full, configured with 76 seats and four crew on board. But the weather and the environment may be the most abnormal part of this incident.

The wind at the time of the crash was howling, gusting from 27 to 35 knots, about 40 miles per hour, at a right crosswind as this plane came into land on Toronto Pearson's runway 23. The other big question for investigators -- was the runway surface contaminated, meaning was it slick with ice or was it dry?

Investigators really have their work cut out for them now and Transport Canada's Transportation Safety Board will look at this along with the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States and the National Transportation Safety Board since this flight did originate from Minneapolis in the U.S.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well, CNN spoke earlier with the former Inspector General of the U.S. Transportation Department and asked her what might have caused the plane to flip like it did.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, it could happen in a couple of ways in accidents that I've worked on in the past. One, it hit something upon landing and then did not do a stabilized landing. It lost its gear. This, I'm talking about Asiana in California, probably about 10 or so years ago. And then that, you know, came in, tipped one wing and it cartwheeled.

You know, another one where if you came in and you exited the runway at Toronto Pearson, while it's nice, long and flat, there are berms, there is a highway, there are other, there's other equipment and this does appear to have exited the runway.

And in that case, if you lost your landing gear, and most particularly if you had a hefty crosswind. Now, on the CRJ900, the crosswind limits are 27 to 35 knots, depending upon the load. And as Pete Muntean mentioned earlier, this, the gusts were exceeding that. And so that could also play a big effect.

I mean, if you're coming in and you have a big enough crosswind and it exceeds your aircraft limit, it could cause an upset event. But I think a combination of you had a bad crosswind, you left the runway and then you hit something. That's how usually these upside down events occur. Then there you are, you're upside down. Even a gust could cause you to catch one wingtip, if you catch one wing over the other, you can cartwheel.

[04:10:00]

That happened to me, almost happened to me. I managed to get it back down very early on in flight training and I was a little, you know, afraid of crosswind ever since. So those combinations could do it. And I think the weather is going to play an important factor here when they do the investigation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Now, from Hawaii to Washington, D.C., Americans are protesting against the Trump White House and are demanding their lawmakers do more to protect democracy. More on that ahead.

Plus, Pope Francis is still in hospital. We'll go live to Rome next for an update on his condition.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:02]

MACFARLANE: We're returning now to our top story, and the top Russian and American diplomats are meeting right now in the Saudi capital. CNN's Matthew Chance is there in Riyadh where these talks are ongoing. And Matthew, in the past hour or so, we've seen these historic images coming in of this meeting taking place between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sitting down for this initial meeting.

What is unfolding there where you are, and what are the expectations for today?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christina, of course, these talks are taking place very much behind closed doors. We've not got any direct access to them, but you're right, it is historic. There are these face-to-face meetings taking place between U.S. officials and their Russian counterparts, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State of the United States, meeting Sergei Lavrov before the formal talks went ahead.

And as we were hearing earlier, there are a range of issues, not just the end of the Ukraine war, but as far as the Russians are concerned, they want to talk about. There have been real problems caused by the Ukraine war. There have been massive economic problems in Russia. There are heavy sanctions on the country because of the conflict and because of other issues as well. And you know, the Russians certainly want to get that sort of situation eased from their point of view.

But earlier, I managed to get a few questions to one of the Russian negotiators, Kirill Dmitriev, who's the head of the Russian Sovereign Wealth Fund. And he said that sanctions alleviation was not the main priority for him. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: Kirill, Mr. Dmitriev, good to see you. Thank you very much.

Thank you for speaking to us just briefly. Let me ask you, first of all, as these historic talks prepare to get underway, what are you expecting from them? What are you coming here to get?

KIRILL DMITRIEV, CEO, RUSSIAN DIRECT INVESTMENT FUND: Well, I think it's very important to build the bridges. I think U.S.-Russia relations are very important for the world. I think it's very important that U.S.-Russia cooperate together and jointly we can solve problems.

And, you know, we've been always advocating better U.S.-Russia relations. And dialogue is also very important.

CHANCE: Right, but when you say better relations and better cooperation, isn't what you really want the lifting of sanctions on Russia? There's lots of them.

DMITRIEV: No, not at all.

CHANCE: Isn't that something the Russians want?

DMITRIEV: No, I think what we want is good dialogue. Actually, it's U.S. businesses who lost $300 billion from leaving Russia. So I think it's very important that by not working together, U.S. economies having big, tall $300 billion have been lost by U.S. businesses.

CHANCE: Now, you've had a longstanding relationship with members of the Trump team in the first administration and in this one as well. Have you been meeting already with Trump delegation members here in Riyadh?

DMITRIEV: Well, yes, we've had some meetings with Trump team members. And all I can say is that they're great problem solvers. And I think President Trump is a great problem solver. And also his team is a team of great problem solvers.

CHANCE: What has that team promised you here? Have they given you an indication about what they're going to give you?

DMITRIEV: No, I think the promise is let's have dialogue. Let's figure out the best solution for our countries, for other countries, for the global community. Thank you so much.

CHANCE: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (on camera): Well, Christina, those talks now underway, as we've been hearing, they're also controversial, though, because of who's not here. The Ukrainians are not in attendance. And that's something that they've expressed sort of alarm about. The Europeans aren't here either. And so I think around the world, there's a great deal of concern about what these talks may actually produce.

And so there's going to be a lot of focus in the coming hours to see what the results of these face-to-face talks between the United States and Russia actually materialize.

MACFARLANE: Yes, well, that clip there with the Russian official, Matthew, an indication, I think, of the mood and optimism that exists in the Russian camp at the moment. Matthew Chance there live for us in Riyadh. Thanks, Matthew.

Now Pope Francis is in a stable condition in hospital, according to the Vatican. Doctors have been adjusting his treatment to deal with a complex respiratory infection. The pope was admitted on Friday after having difficulty breathing.

For the latest, I'm joined now by Barbie Latza Nadeau, who's outside the hospital in Rome. Barbie, what more are we learning about his condition, this complex respiratory infection? We didn't know much yesterday. Do we know any more today about the seriousness of that?

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: No, you know, we really haven't had an update. We're expecting one in about an hour's time from the Vatican. What we were told last night, though, that this is a very complicated clinical picture.

And of course, that can mean many things. But we can take probably for granted that his age, 88 years old, and his health condition, he has mobility issues. He's not able to move around very easily. He's largely confined to a wheelchair for most of his events.

[04:20:00]

But we can also take into consideration kind of his activities of the last couple of weeks before the hospitalization. There were several occasions when he couldn't keep his breath, he couldn't speak, and he had to hand his prepared remarks over to someone else to deliver them on his behalf. And we know he was being treated while before he came into the hospital. We then heard that he was given an antibiotic treatment for this complex respiratory infection.

Then we found out yesterday, three days after or four days after he'd been admitted to the hospital, that, once again, they changed his course. So, he's on a different type of medication. We haven't heard directly from his doctors yet at this point. We don't know if we will be. But the Vatican certainly is very careful about the information they give out. It's very curated in terms of how much information they're willing to give on his behalf about how he is. We haven't seen any pictures or photos or images of him. That's something that, when he's been hospitalized in the past, we have seen him visiting other wards of the hospital. The fact that we haven't seen that, we can consider perhaps that he's very much bedridden.

And his doctors have told him that he absolutely has to take it easy and can't do anything. He didn't deliver the Angelus prayer that he usually does on Sunday. He's really, you know, focused on getting well, and his doctors are focused on keeping him still and keeping him under treatment, and hopefully, with luck and prayer and all that, that he'll get out of here sometime soon.

But we haven't been given any indication how long that will be.

MACFARLANE: Yes, and I'm sure he's receiving plenty of prayers right now. Barbie Latza Nadeau, thanks so much for the update.

Now thousands of Americans spent President's Day protesting President Donald Trump, saying he's acting more like a tyrant or a king than the elected leader of the democratic nation.

Demonstrators gathered in cities across the United States as part of 5051, a loosely organized grassroots non-violent movement. They say Donald Trump and his allies, including billionaire Elon Musk, pose a grave danger to the U.S.. They're calling on lawmakers to step up and counter Mr. Trump's destructive agenda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YVONNE BAICICH, PROTESTER: We've had problems, of course, but we were lulled into the idea that somehow the Constitution was going to save us, and that a takeover like this was not possible. And here we are.

JACQUI OLKIN, PROTESTER: I think I've always believed that people in Congress, well, they take an oath to the Constitution, and so I've always believed that they would, in the end, stand up for the Constitution and the separation of powers and the rule of law. And I haven't seen anything from the Republicans in Congress that suggests that they are willing to challenge Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who wasn't even rightly elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, in the next 24 hours, a U.S. federal judge is expected to rule on a case challenging Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration. Several states have sued to keep Musk and his DOGE team from accessing critical government systems. But the judge is asking for more proof that Musk's firing of federal employees and access to confidential data would cause real harm.

CNN's Evan Perez has those details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR U.S. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It was a rare court hearing on Presidents' Day, and Judge Tanya Chutkan appeared, at least at this point, uninclined to grant a temporary restraining order against Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency in accessing the data of government workers.

One of the things the judge said from the bench today is that she believed the states that have sued the government don't have enough proof beyond media reports of actual harm coming to those states. I'll read you just a part of what she said from the bench today.

She said: The court can't act based on media reports. We can't do that. We can certainly take judicial notice of them, but they can't form the basis, I don't think, of me finding that a temporary restraining order is warranted because of imminent harm.

Now, a group of states were pushing for the judge to block Elon Musk's DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency, from accessing data at the Office of Personal Management and some of the other government departments across Washington. The judge promised to make an official ruling within 24 hours, but for now, she is not -- she does not seem inclined to grant that request.

Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: New York's governor is convening a meeting of community leaders about the path forward in New York City after numerous resignations were filed in the mayor's office. On Monday, four top deputies to Mayor Eric Adams stepped down from their roles. This following the mass resignation of top prosecutors in the corruption case against Adams last week.

The outgoing U.S. attorney for Manhattan has accused the mayor of cutting a deal with President Trump, agreeing to cooperate with new immigration plans if the Justice Department threw out the mayor's corruption case. Adams has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies a quid pro quo.

[04:25:00]

And more ahead this hour on the plane crash in Toronto that one passenger said left everyone hanging upside down like bats. What authorities are saying about the weather's role in all of this?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: The first round of talks is underway between top U.S. and Russian officials in Riyadh as they try to find a path forwards ending the war in Ukraine. U.S. President Trump is not attending the meeting. He is on vacation in Florida as his advisers push his agenda of peace at all costs.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more from West Palm Beach.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: From his Mar-a-Lago resort here in Florida, President Trump is keeping a close eye Tuesday on Saudi Arabia, where three of his top administration officials are meeting with their Russian counterparts, all over trying to begin negotiations to end the Russia.

[04:30:00]