All language subtitles for gvAyykRvPBo.en-US.asr.srt

♪ ♪

(quiet clattering)

(indistinct chatter)

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV:
This is the first time

I saw "Z,"
the Russian sign of war.

The hospital is surrounded.

Dozens of doctors,
hundreds of patients and us.

CHERNOV: I have no illusions
about what will happen to us if
we are caught.

♪ ♪

-(rain pouring)
-(windshield wipers flapping)

CHERNOV: February 24, 2022.

The city looks normal.

Someone once told me, "Wars
don't start with explosions.

They start with silence."

When we realized
that the invasion was imminent,

our team decided
to go to Mariupol.

We were sure it would
be one of the main targets.

But we could
never imagine the scale

and that the whole
country would be under attack.

(air raid siren wailing)

♪ ♪

CHERNOV:
An hour after we arrive,

the first bombs hit in
the outskirts of the city.

A military base
with antiaircraft systems.

Russians are clearing
the path for warplanes.

Huge port, industrial city,

a bridge to Crimea.

We were here eight years ago
when Russia tried to take it.

And, without
a doubt, they will try again.

We drive to the Left Bank,

the part of
the city closest to Russia.

(vehicle door slams)

CHERNOV: This is the first
person I speak to today.

(woman crying)

I don't know if I should keep
filming or try to calm her down.

(people shouting)

CHERNOV: I was wrong.

An hour later,
shells do hit this neighborhood.

(dog barking)

(man shouting in Ukrainian)

(chatter continues)

CHERNOV: There are no
directives to evacuate the city,

but some people
are leaving anyway.

CHERNOV:
I understand their anger.

Their country is being attacked.

It's our country, too,

and we have to tell its story.

(air raid siren wailing)

There are almost no
real bomb shelters in the city,

so people hide in the basements
of their apartment buildings.

(baby cries)

Suddenly, the lights go out.

(people chattering)

(baby fussing)

(baby cries)

♪ ♪

CHERNOV: We send videos
and photos to our editors.

The war has begun.

REPORTER: Ukraine
is now a nation at war.

190,000 Russian
troops and their proxies

coming from Ukraine's northern,
eastern and southern borders.

Russia is moving fast.

REPORTER 2:
After Putin stopped speaking,

on cue, the missiles
and air strikes began.

REPORTER 3: Air raid
sirens sounded on and off.

Kharkiv in the east
and Mariupol in the south

both came under heavy fire.

REPORTER 4: There's
real anger in the air.

The hatred for Vladimir Putin
is... is palpable.

(woman speaking
Ukrainian over loudspeaker)

CHERNOV: February 26th.

This is emergency
broadcast system.

Russians are
starting to surround the city,

taking towns and blocking
the roads on the outskirts.

A quarter of
the residents have left.

But most decided to stay.

This is
Terrasport fitness center.

Now it's one of the biggest
improvised shelters in the city.

(people chattering)

People put tape on the mirrors
so fewer fragments are created

when bombs fall.

CHERNOV: This woman,

she's the one I told to
stay home on the first day.

CHERNOV: I apologize.

I'm glad she is okay.

CHERNOV: As I look
at all these children,

I think about my daughters.

They also have to leave
their home because of this war.

News comes from
all over Ukraine,

and I cannot
get over the feeling

that something terrible is
going to happen to this city.

REPORTER: Missiles
fired at civilian locations,

according to the Ukrainians,

even though the Russians say

they are not
targeting civilians.

REPORTER 2: Their worst
nightmare coming true,

thousands of citizens
are trying to flee the country.

And those who are left
behind have filled bomb shelters

amid fears of
rocket attacks overnight.

REPORTER 3:
Ukrainian soldiers like these

have put up
a stout defense of Mariupol

because, as a large
port, it's economically vital,

and as a major city
just 30 miles from Russia,

it's strategic.

For both sides in this
war, it is quite a prize.

CHERNOV: February 27th.

Soldiers are patrolling around
Emergency Hospital Number Two,

a couple kilometers from
the front line on the edge of
the city.

So far, Russians have
not been able to break through.

(men shouting)

(shouting continues)

CHERNOV: For
the first time in Mariupol,

I hear a sound of a fighter jet.

(men conversing)

CHERNOV: The soldiers are tense

and don't want to be filmed.

(siren wailing)

CHERNOV: We're interrupted
by an ambulance siren.

(urgent chatter)

(woman shouting)

(woman crying)

(urgent chatter)

-(chatter quiets)
-(sniffling)

♪ ♪

CHERNOV:
Evangelina, four years old.

REPORTER: U.S. officials warn

that Russian forces are turning
to their old and brutal tactics

of laying siege to cities

while targeting civilians
and infrastructure from afar.

REPORTER 2:
...these punishing artillery

and air strikes.

Heavy losses, as indiscriminate
shelling rain down

on apartment buildings,

the university in flames.

REPORTER 3: "Show
this to Putin," a doctor said

to an AP reporter.

The doctor wanted
Vladimir Putin to see, quote,

"the eyes of this
child and crying doctors."

REPORTER 4: Anyone
wanting to leave Mariupol

probably has to hit
the road by tomorrow,

after which the last
route out is expected to close.

(quiet chatter)

CHERNOV: March 2nd.

Russian strikes are
causing problems with Internet

and electricity.

CHERNOV: All
the international journalists

we met in Mariupol have left.

But we decide to stick
with the medics for a few days.

We drive to the Left Bank,

where the heaviest
fighting is happening.

(sighs)

CHERNOV: This woman was standing

on her balcony when
the shell hit the house

on the opposite
side of the street.

(siren wailing)

But shells don't
just hit the Left Bank.

These days, attacks
happen all across the city.

♪ ♪

(urgent chatter)

(woman gasping, shouting)

(urgent chatter continues)

(man shouting instructions)

-(man crying)
-(urgent chatter continues)

CHERNOV: The boy
was playing soccer

with his friends
when shelling started.

His legs were
completely blown off.

(quiet chatter)

(sobbing)

(wailing)

(sobbing and wailing continues)

CHERNOV: Ilya, 16 years old.

(distant explosions echoing)

The front line is closing in.

We've sent all
the photos and videos.

Note to
editors: graphic content.

This is painful.

This is painful to watch.

But it must be painful to watch.

REPORTER: In
the port city of Mariupol,

local officials say hundreds
of casualties are now feared.

REPORTER 2:
A father lost in grief

over the body of
his 16-year-old son Ilya.

REPORTER 3:
The electricity's gone.

The Internet's gone.

The Russians are coming.

Mariupol awaits its fate.

-(missile whooshing)
-(distant explosions)

CHERNOV: March 3rd.

CHERNOV:
The shelling has reached

the neighborhood
around the hospital.

(explosions echoing)

(women crying and
chattering quietly)

CHERNOV: Patients are
moved away from the windows,

and day after day,

the conditions in
the hospital get worse.

(people conversing)

This is one of the boys who was
hit while playing soccer.

Doctors smile at him,

but I hear a whisper that his
leg may need to be amputated.

There are almost no antibiotics
left to stop the sepsis.

(women conversing)

CHERNOV: The Internet and phones

have stopped working,

and I'm sending short
dispatches to our editors

over the satellite phone.

The morgue is full, so doctors
store bodies in utility rooms.

(quiet chatter, light laughter)

CHERNOV: We stay and
sleep in the hospital.

So far, it seems
to be the safest place.

(distant explosions echoing)

CHERNOV: From
our observation point

on the seventh
floor of the hospital,

I see the battle on
the front line continues.

Russians are still
trying to break into the city.

(people shouting)

CHERNOV: Kyryl, 18 months old.

(urgent chatter)

(machinery beeping)

(woman weeping)

(woman wailing)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

CHERNOV: All night, we sit

on the seventh
floor of the hospital,

hoping to catch a connection,

to find a way to
get these images out.

Nothing works.

I think about all
this country has been through

over the past eight years,

all that I've filmed.

Revolution of Dignity.

Crimea's annexation.

Russia's invasion of Donbas.

MH17.

Donetsk airport siege.

War that seems endless.

Thousands have died.

We keep filming.

And things stay the same.

Worse even.

Propaganda turns
everything upside down.

I think about my daughters.

They were born
into a world at war.

I wish I could see them now.

(distant explosions echoing)

But all I have
is a satellite phone

to make short calls to editors.

We tell them,
"Mariupol is under siege.

"Russians are killing civilians.

"We are holding up.

Tell our families we love them."

♪ ♪

REPORTER: Evacuations of
two besieged cities in Ukraine

are being
delayed amid reports that

Russia is violating
a temporary cease-fire.

The city is
surrounded by Russian troops,

and there is no way out,

even for any humanitarian help.

The situation is
really dire in Mariupol.

A courier that was planned
to evacuate people from there,

and we've heard
that it has not happened,

that Russian forces have
continued to shell the city.

That's what the mayor has said.

Um, we have no real-time
information of what's going on
in the city.

(man speaking on radio)

CHERNOV: This is
the only radio signal

you can catch in Mariupol now.

Over the next weeks,
Russia will bomb buildings,

cut electricity,
water, supplies,

and finally,
crucially, the cell phone,

radio, television towers.

We have to get
out of the hospital

to try to find a connection,

to see what's
happening to the city.

(explosions ringing)

(alarms blaring)

(explosions continue)

CHERNOV: March 4th.

A mall near
the hospital was destroyed.

CHERNOV: As
we search for a connection,

we go neighborhood
to neighborhood.

Houses we saw
standing days ago are destroyed.

(sobbing)

CHERNOV: We follow the smoke.

Houses hit by shells burn.

A humanitarian corridor
was opened on March 5th.

Vehicles fled the city,

only to be
blocked by Russian forces.

Then the road was closed.

CHERNOV: Red Cross, police,

Ukrainian soldiers try
to help and calm people down.

(people conversing worriedly)

♪ ♪

CHERNOV: The more people realize

that they are trapped,

the more desperate they grow.

(people chattering)

(sobbing)

CHERNOV: The city
changed so much, so quickly.

When we were in the hospital,

one of the doctors told me,

"War is like an X-ray.

All human
insides become visible."

CHERNOV: "Good
people become better.

Bad people worse."

(man laughs)

CHERNOV: But I thought,

"It's not only
the bombs, lack of food, water.

"It's isolation, the inability
to contact relatives,

to find out what's
happening in other cities."

People charge cell
phones from a generator

just to use them as flashlights.

Cut off.

We feel the same.

We still cannot send our images.

(playful chatter, humming)

(woman singing)

(chatter continues)

(crying)

(sniffling)

(baby crying)

(explosions echoing)

CHERNOV: That night,
as we watch artillery shooting,

our phones
suddenly pick up connection.

I split the footage
into ten-second clips,

set three phones on
the windowsill and send.

REPORTER: Bombs
continued to rain down

on the southern
Ukrainian city of Mariupol,

which was fully
surrounded by Russian troops.

REPORTER 2: The Russians say
they aren't targeting civilians.

This is 18-month-old Kyryl.

REPORTER 3: Medics
try to save the boy.

They cannot.

CHERNOV: March 9th.

Like a disease,
war is taking over the city.

(quiet chatter)

We are back at the
Emergency Hospital Number Two.

The few city workers
that are still on duty

collect bodies to be buried.

I recognize this sheet.

It's Ilya, the boy
who was killed playing soccer.

♪ ♪

CHERNOV: Somewhere
among these black bags

lie the other
children we filmed.

(chatter continues)

♪ ♪

(panting)

CHERNOV: Another truck arrives.

Bodies from the streets.

(distant explosions echoing)

My brain will desperately
want to forget all this.

But the camera
will not let it happen.

(explosion ringing)

(glass shattering)

(alarms blaring)

CHERNOV: The shock wave.

Ears and skin feel
the change of pressure.

We hide in
the entryway of a building

and wait for another strike,

praying it will not hit us.

(explosions echoing)

(alarms blaring)

(knocking)

CHERNOV: We go to
the top of the building

and see the smoke
just a few blocks away.

It's a hospital.

(people shouting)

(sobbing)

(urgent chatter continues)

♪ ♪

(men shouting in distance)

(radio chatter)

CHERNOV: I try to find out

how many dead
and wounded there are.

But in this
chaos, nobody can answer.

(urgent chatter)

(people conversing)

CHERNOV: The name
of the police officer

speaking to us is Vladimir.

He wants to make a statement.

CHERNOV: And
then he asks once more.

Russian troops commit...

...war crimes.

Our family, our womens,

our children need helps.

Our people needs help
from international society.

Please help Mariupol.

CHERNOV: Vladimir showed us

the only place in the city

where we could catch
a signal and send the images.

CHERNOV: Outside
a looted grocery store

on Budivel'nykiv Avenue.

(distant explosions echoing)

(glass and stone
clattering underfoot)

CHERNOV: Air strikes
are happening constantly.

CHERNOV:
Vladimir said the footage

from the maternity hospital

will change
the course of the war.

But we have seen
so many dead people.

Dead children.

How could more
death change anything?

♪ ♪

REPORTER: Air strikes on
the southern city of Mariupol

destroyed a children's
and maternity hospital.

REPORTER 2: For once,
the aftermath of a bombing,

here at the city's
maternity hospital,

was filmed for the world to see.

REPORTER 3:
Horror and devastation.

This is clearly the worst
and most egregious attack

we have seen in this war so far.

(speaking Spanish)

(reporter speaking Japanese)

REPORTER 4: The Associated Press
also reports

that city
workers have had to create

a mass grave to bury the dead.

REPORTER 5: And Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky

calling this attack a war crime.

(distant gunfire ringing)

CHERNOV: March 10th.

(explosion echoing loudly)

-(alarms blaring)
-(explosion echoing)

The city is still being bombed.

And now I can also
hear heavy machine guns.

(gunfire echoing)

That means Russians
have entered the city.

(loud explosions echoing)

(car alarm wailing)

Vladimir, the officer
we met yesterday, is with us.

CHERNOV: The last
functioning fire department

in the city
destroyed by another air strike.

(quiet chatter)

(machinery whirring)

(explosion echoing)

CHERNOV: I don't
know if he survived.

We try not to
stay long in one place.

The biggest university in
the city was destroyed, too.

CHERNOV: New wounds every day.

(debris crunching underfoot)

(metallic objects clattering)

CHERNOV: We drive
back to catch a signal

at the spot on
Budivel'nykiv Avenue.

It's still the only place
where you can get Internet.

(cell phone chimes)

It's past curfew,
so Vladimir accompanies us.

CHERNOV: We check
the news and speak to editors.

CHERNOV: Sorry, what?

Hold on. Hold on.

(explosion echoing)

It's coming back. Hold on.

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

This motherfucker
is flying around.

Hold on. I can hear him.

I-I don't think there
has been a moment today

when there was
not-not an airplane in the air.

And, uh...

CHERNOV: I give them the latest.

But there are
disturbing updates for us.

Okay.

REPORTER: These
women's stories have epitomized

the tragedy
unfolding in Ukraine.

And yet, even their suffering
has been questioned,

with Russian
officials claiming on Twitter

and in news programs
that they must be actors.

(translated): This maternity
hospital had already been

seized by the Azov Battalion
and other radicals.

All the pregnant
women, all the nurses,

all the service personnel were
already expelled from there.

(translated): This
is information terrorism.

CHERNOV: We hoped
that the pregnant woman

on the stretcher survived.

So we went to search for her

and other victims at the
Emergency Hospital Number Two.

Soldiers are
guarding the entrance.

Vladimir says this
is the red zone now.

The Russians have
entered the neighborhood.

(gunfire echoing)

So he comes with us.

(gunfire echoing)

Floor by floor, we search
for the pregnant women.

There is no maternity ward, so
we try the surgery department.

(people conversing)

(woman shouting in pain)

Surgeons are overwhelmed
and low on painkillers.

(woman shouting in pain)

This piece of shrapnel
was taken from a patient.

CHERNOV: Finally,
we find one of the doctors

who treated
the woman on the stretcher.

CHERNOV: Her name was Iryna.

They said
she screamed, "Kill me,"

when they brought her.

She knew her child was dead.

Other survivors are here.

One of them has
just given birth.

Another is taken
to an operating room.

She lost part of
her foot in the bombing

and doctors
worry about the child.

-(urgent chatter)
-(machines beeping)

-(baby crying)
-(excited shouting, clapping)

(baby continues crying)

(distant explosions echoing)

(distant explosion echoes)

CHERNOV: We have to leave.

But the corridors
are filled with people

who lost homes, relatives.

(woman sniffling)

(woman sobbing,
breathing unsteadily)

(crying)

♪ ♪

CHERNOV: We head to
the exit, but it's too late.

Soldiers say a sniper
just shot and injured a nurse

in front of the hospital.

CHERNOV: Two
soldiers are still trapped.

(gunfire echoes)

(gunfire continues)

(man coughs)

(man speaking over radio)

CHERNOV: We hear a low rumble.

CHERNOV: So we run
to the seventh floor,

to our observation point.

It's risky.

They can open fire at
upper floors of the hospital.

But from here, we can see more.

(explosion echoing)

(explosion echoing)

(gunfire echoes)

CHERNOV: They are coming closer.

If reinforcements don't arrive,

the soldiers downstairs
will not be able to stop them.

They will take
over the hospital.

CHERNOV: What should we do?

We need to send
all this footage.

Survivors from
the maternity bombing.

Tanks shooting
at residential areas.

There is no connection here.

And we can't get to our car.

And if we get
caught, Vladimir says,

"Russians will make
you say everything you published

was a lie."

The night is sleepless.

Feverish thoughts of
past, present and future

race through my mind.

I want all of this to stop,
but I have no power over it.

My memory keeps carrying
me back home and back to war.

If someday my daughters ask me,

"What did you do
to stop this madness,

this sadistic
virus of destruction?"

...I want to be able
to give them an answer.

(brisk footsteps)

This is a special
military task force.

All night, we hid
inside the hospital,

and Vladimir used
the last of his radio's battery

to contact them.

This morning, they broke into
the surgery department to
rescue us.

They said we were
already behind enemy lines.

(breathing heavily)

(men shouting)

(explosion echoing)

(explosion echoing)

CHERNOV: We are
still wearing the scrubs

the doctors gave us,

in case Russians
entered the hospital that night.

(door squeaking open)

(breathing heavily)

(explosion echoing)

(explosion echoing)

(explosion echoing)

(explosion echoing)

(explosion echoing)

(debris crunching underfoot)

CHERNOV: We run,

abandoning the doctors
who have sheltered us,

pregnant women
who had been shelled,

the people who live
in hospital corridors

because they have
nowhere else to go.

(distant explosion echoing)

-(man shouts)
-(explosion echoing)

♪ ♪

The Russians
took over the hospital

a few hours after we escaped.

They've taken the Left Bank,

except the Azovstal
steel factory.

And they are closing
in on the city center.

Ukrainian forces fight
back, but they are outnumbered.

The city is slowly
dying like a human being.

On the day
we escaped from the hospital,

the military task
force moved us and Vladimir

to an area still
under Ukrainian control.

And for days, we tried to find
a way to get out of the city

with all the footage.

-(people shouting)
-(child screaming)

March 13th.

Shelling of
residential areas continues.

(people chattering)

(crying)

(people conversing worriedly)

(sobbing)

CHERNOV:
Without any information,

people don't know who to blame.

(debris clattering)

CHERNOV:
Vladimir keeps insisting

we need to find a way to leave.

But we no longer have our van.

It was left
behind in the hospital.

And anyone who drives us
with our cameras and hard drives

through miles of occupied
territory would be taking
a risk.

On March 15th,
our editors send us a message:

"Yesterday, some
people were able to leave

"with a Red Cross convoy,

and there is
another one leaving today."

We go to the last functioning
hospital in the city.

(man clears throat)

The Red Cross convoy has left.

-(distant gunfire)
-(explosions echoing)

(man groaning in pain)

(man screaming in pain)

CHERNOV: I wish I could do more.

Stay longer.

But we need to leave.

One of the doctors tells us
to follow him to the basement.

(distant explosion echoes)

(debris crunches underfoot)

CHERNOV: We need to
catch up with the convoy.

Vladimir says he can
try to take us with his car.

I tell him it's dangerous.

But he wants to help to
get us and our materials out.

And he still hopes if
the world saw everything

that happened in Mariupol,

it would give at least
some meaning to this horror.

(car horn honking)

Vladimir's car
was damaged by shelling

but miraculously still runs.

We are with his family.

We make
it through 100 kilometers

of occupied territory
and 15 Russian checkpoints,

cameras and hard
drives hidden under seats.

By dawn, we finally catch
up with the Red Cross convoy.

Yesterday, I told one of
the officers who extracted us

from the hospital,
"Thank you for saving us."

He said, "Thank you for
telling the story of this city."

And yet, as we drive away,

I keep thinking
about all the people

whose tragedies
will remain unknown.

I will see my daughters.

And I can only hope
that these people survive

and will be with
their families, too.

♪ ♪

REPORTER:
The total number of refugees

who have fled Ukraine so far
is now nearing three million.

REPORTER 2: And Russians
continue to strangle

and starve Mariupol.

REPORTER 3: Got some
new video this morning

of 2,000 cars
that officials say managed

to make it out of Mariupol
through a humanitarian corridor

that Russia did not renege on.

REPORTER 4:
Devastating images are now

emerging from Mariupol, where
the mayor says the death toll

could be as high as
20,000 since the war began.

(reporters speaking
in various languages)

REPORTER 3: Leaving
people without supply lines

for food or water,
without Internet connection

to the outside world.

REPORTER 5: It was a tragedy.

This woman and
her unborn child later died.

REPORTER 6: And we know about
the atrocities that have been

happening inside
Mariupol because of journalists

from the Associated Press.

The only international
reporters to remain

after the Russian
bombardment bore witness

to what have become
indelible images of the war.

WOMAN: AP
reporters on the ground

showed the world
a mass grave in Mariupol.

I'm talking about
narrow trenches in Mariupol

with babies' bodies in them.

AP... AP
journalists have been there.

I've seen so many fakes.

Who wins the-the information
war, the one who wins the war.

-Do you really, truly believe
this? -(reporters clamoring)

Do you truly
believe what you're saying?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

(music fades)