Ukraine Says Russian Troops Invading
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Have confirmed that actual Russian forces and materiel have crossed into that city in southeastern Ukraine. Now, there are different analyses of what is actually going on. Some are saying that this may be a Russian attempt to sort of divide and conquer, if you like, because the separatists in the other parts of the separatists held parts of eastern Ukraine have been on the back foot recently as the Ukrainian government has succeed in pushing them back a lot. So now they may be trying to draw out the Ukrainian forces and spread them thinner. Alternatively, this is another theory, and one that the commander of NATO, General Breedlove, had told me, you know, several months ago that Russia may be trying to implement some kind of establishment of a land route, a land bridge, from Russia to Crimea, which at the moment it doesn't have. But whatever, it is continued instability, it's obviously a dramatic escalation. I've spoken several times to President Poroshenko of Ukraine who says that this must be resolved diplomatically. We need to talk with President Putin. And for this to happen two days after the two of them shook hands in Minsk, in Belarus, another former Soviet republic, is truly audacious of the Russians because President Putin said there he was very ready to work on a cease-fire.</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you know, you say people say this must be solved diplomatically. The fact is, if what we're seeing is actually happening there, it's not being solved diplomatically. Russia is moving in, in greater numbers, whatever their ultimate motivation is, which could be territorial acquisition, as you say there. So what do you do about this? What does the west do about this? What do the NATO officials that you're speaking to then do about this?</s>AMANPOUR: Well, it's clear that nobody thinks that there's going to be any kind of confrontation of Russia as the west may or may not be contemplating against ISIS. What is going to presumably happen is a continuation and potentially even a ratcheting up of sanctions, but also NATO and the NATO secretary general has said that there's going to be more deployment of NATO material to try to, you know, preposition and keep sort of the defensive nature at the very least and keep trying to pressure President Putin economically, diplomatically, politically, to see that this is basically not going to serve Russia in any which way. But at the - but in the meantime, it causes immense destabilization and Ukrainian forces do not want to engage with the Russian forces because they will get whipped as the Georgian forces did when they tried to do that in 2008, when Russia, you know, took over south Asettia (ph). So the Ukrainian forces do not want to engage with the Russian forces per se. And those who have done are being pushed back and it's a very dramatic situation for the Ukrainian forces right now.</s>BERMAN: Christiane, is this an indication of the sanctions as they are right now are not working? If the sanctions can't keep Vladimir Putin from escalating the military situation, one could ask what good are they?</s>AMANPOUR: Well, look, they have had an effect. They absolutely have had an effect. They've had an effect on the Russian economy, on the stock market, on the currency. They've had an effect in isolating Vladimir Putin to an extent that he would not want to be isolated. Yes, I mean it's continued diplomatic pressure that's obviously going to have to somehow find some kind of a breakthrough because it's very difficult to see right now how this is going to be solved in any immediate term, if indeed that that doesn't - you know, the political and diplomatic breakthrough doesn't happen. Now, we may know a little bit more about how the west confronts this because the NATO summit is going to be held in Wales next week and obviously Ukraine, Russia, ISIS, Afghanistan, these major, major challenges are going to be front and center. It's going to be a very important NATO meeting here in Wales in exactly a week from now.</s>BERMAN: Oh, the timing, Christine, is stunning. You know, two days after Vladimir Putin meets with President Poroshenko -</s>AMANPOUR: It is.</s>BERMAN: Days before this big NATO meeting in Wales. I'm going to ask you to do the impossible here. Put yourself in the head of Vladimir Putin. What possibly could he be thinking right now? You say one possible reason for this might be to create a land corridor with Crimea. Is it possible he's also looking for an honorable exit to this, leave, you know, with a strong hand?</s>AMANPOUR: You know, if he had been looking for an honorable exit, that one was offered over and over again, most particularly several times. We were there, for instance, in Normandy on D-Day shortly after the election of Petro Poroshenko. Petro Poroshenko himself offers the best chance for Vladimir Putin to have a face-saving way out. In Normandy, with the U.S. president, Barack Obama, with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, with all the, you know, NATO and other leaders, they did meet, Poroshenko and Putin, and afterwards I spoke to Poroshenko and he said, you know, sometimes President Putin is very emotional about what's going on and sometimes he's pragmatic. And the question is, we don't know when he is which. We think there is a peaceful way out of this. I have offered a detailed peace plan. One that respects the rights of the Russian minority, the Russian speaking minority in eastern Ukraine. So he says, yes, we can do this, but then he doesn't do it. So they believe that Putin is either being boxed in by the propaganda that he's already created, but also the desire to control events in Ukraine, or that he has entirely nefarious designs and no matter what he says to Poroshenko or to the west in public he's doing something completely other in private. So what's in his head? It's hard to get into his head. But, you know, actions kind of speak louder than words at the moment.</s>BERMAN: Those actions are putting 1,000 troops heavily armed on the ground inside Ukraine right now.</s>AMANPOUR: Yes.</s>BERMAN: We'll be watching this all morning. Christiane Amanpour, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Alisyn.</s>AMANPOUR: Thanks, John.</s>ALISYN  CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John. The FBI is investigating a string of cyber attacks on U.S. banks. Evidence suggests it could be Russian hackers retaliating for those economic sanctions you were talking about. We'll give you the facts. And, a bad case of mistaken identity. A black TV producer pulled over, handcuffed, and held for six hours before police realized they had the wrong man. That producer speaks to us next.