york city. >> i'm john vause live in lviv ukraine with the latest on russia's military buildup for their eastern offensive as the u.s. president for the first time accuses russia of committing genocide. we begin this hour with that manhunt for the brooklyn subway shooter. police say the suspect set off two smoke grenades tuesday morning before firing his gun 33 times, shooting at the crowds both in the train and then on the subway platform. at least ten people were hit. thankfully no one was killed. police have identified the man you see here as a person of interest because he's believed to have rented a u-haul van whose keys were found at the scene. now, he has not been named as a suspect. authorities are investigating any possible connection he may have to this shooting. we will have much more on this story in a moment. but first we want to bring you the latest on russia's war in ukraine. >> for the first time, u.s. president joe biden accusing russia of committing genocide in ukraine. biden made the comments while talking about an increase in gasoline prices. he then repeated the accusation latewith reporters. >> i called it genocide because it's become clearer and clearer that putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of being able to be ukrainian. and the evidence is mounting. we'll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me. >> president biden's words were welcomed by the ukrainian president, volodymyr zelenskyy, who called them the true words of a true leader. meantime, new satellite images reveal military equipment deployed on russian soil not far from ukraine's border as military convoys also have been seen moving through eastern ukraine near donbas. and on tuesday, the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken said the u.s. could not confirm the use of chemical weapons in ukraine, particularly in the port city of mariupol. but he noted there is credible information that russian forces may use a variety of riot control agents. here's what the ukrainian president had to say about a potential chemical weapons attack. >> translator: given the repeated threats of russian propagandists use chemical weapons against the defenders of mariupol and its repeated use by the russian army, such as phosphorus munitions in ukraine, the world must respond now. react preventively because after the use of weapons of mass destruction, any response will not change anything, and it will only look like a humiliation for the democratic world. >> the russian president vladimir putin says peace talks are at impassione, and this ware says, will go on. >> reporter: we have returned to a dead end situation for ourselves and for all of us. the military operation will continue until it's fully completed and the objectives that were set at the beginning of this operation are achieved. >> as russian forces retreated from areas in the north of ukraine, they littered the area with explosive devices, many dropped from the air, others placed in homes or even stuffed in toys according to ukrainian officials. many of these devices are anti-personnel mines or anti-vehicle mines set to explode by timers or triggered by detecting motion nearby. as cnn's nima elbagir reports, sweeping that area is slow, dangerous, and potentially deadly work. >> reporter: this the central market area in kharkiv, and this is the site of most of last night's strikes. we've come here with emergency service first responders because the russians have come up with a new tactic to ensure that the devastation of their attacks last far beyond first impact. this lieutenant colonel is the head of the bomb disposal team. >> translator: the mines explode by themselves and cause damage. these elements can detonate between 3 and 40 hours later, so we have to detonate them remoltly to avoid damage to the civilian population. >> reporter: there are unexploded mines all over this area, so they can't get too close. what they do is they wrap plastic explosives around a wire, link it to a detonator. that's then placed next to the unexploded ordnance. they retreat, then they blow it up. a brutal new tactic leaving death to lie in wait for unsuspecting civilians. nima elbagir, cnn, kharkiv. earlier i spoke with matthew schmidt, a professor of national security and political science at the university of new haven in connecticut. i asked him about why the russians would use tactics which are designed explicitly to terrorize the civilian population. >> what the russian troops are trying to do right now, what they've been ordered to do is essentially to put so much pain, put so much horror into the civilian population, that that forces zelenskyy to negotiate from a position he may not be ready to negotiate from. on the other hand, it also forces him to act before he's ready, particularly in the donbas right now. so, you know, the new general dvornikov can sit here and use this kind of policy, this strategy of committing war crimes and terrifying the civilian population, to control the negotiating standpoint of his enemy. >> well, we heard from the russian president, vladimir putin, actually talking about those peace negotiations that have been ongoing. he spoke publicly. it's been a while since he's actually made any kind of public remarks. and he said that ukraine had violated agreements which had been reached during those talks earlier by trying to apply security guarantees to areas of ukraine which are under russian control. i want you to listen to a little more from vladimir putin. here he is. >> translator: now, security requirements are one thing, and the issues of regulating relations over crimea and don kbas are taken out of the scope of these agreements. that is, we have again returned to a dead end situation for ourselves and for all of us. >> so if peace talks according to putin are at a dead end, how can you directly link that to what will happen to the civilian population? >> well, they're at a dead end on both sides. because putin has been ordering these war crimes, he's also put zelenskyy in a situation where because he needs a national referendum to get through any kind of peace agreement, he's unlikely to get that now. the sense of the ukrainian population has turned. on the other hand, russia has never been negotiating from a position of good faith. and so both sides now are racing to get position in the donbas. the russians are flipping the battlefield. they're going from the offense to the defense in large part because they've lost so many junior officers that they need to be in a defensive position where it's easier to operate, right? where the simple order is hold the line, and they can wait to try to reman when they get the new conscripts trained up and moved into place. so that's the game that's going on right now, and i wouldn't put any faith into these negotiations. we'll have more from ukraine later this hour, but let's go back to paula in atlanta. we have more now on that investigation into the new york subway shooting. police are looking for this man, who they've identified as a person of interest though not a suspect. 62-year-old frank james is believed to have rented a u-haul van that could be linked to the shooting. the keys were found along with what police say were the shooter's belongings. tuesday morning's attack began with smoke grenades before a gunman opened fire. a man who was wounded in the shooting describes what happened. >> normally the train from 59th street to 36th street usually takes two minutes, but the train kept stopping in between tunnels, in between 45th street. it took forever, you know, and it's an old-style train. you can't switch cars, you know? somebody broke the first door down, and the second door was really hard to break. i was focusing on the pregnant woman, and that's when i got struck in the leg, man. i was just on my way to work. i'm still shocked. i'm shaking. i don't even know how i'm holding my phone, you know? i don't think i could ever ride a train again to be honest. >> isn't it chilling just to hear him describe what happened? brynn gingras has more on the shooting and of course the urgent manhunt that is under way this hour. >> reporter: it happened during the morning rush aboard a busy new york city subway train in brooklyn. shots rang out and smoke filled the car. witnesses say -- >> there was people screaming for medical assistance. it was just a scary moment. >> reporter: law enforcement arrived within minutes. >> an individual on that train donned what appeared to be a gas mask. he then took a canister out of his bag and opened it. the train at that time began to fill with smoke. he then opened fire, striking multiple people on the subway and in the platform. >> reporter: ten shot, five of them in critical but stable condition with many more injured. as photos from the scene show blood on the floor of the subway station. >> we were stuck in the train, about to reach the stop, and then thank goodness the train moved within a minute, or i don't know what would have happened if we were stuck there for longer. >> reporter: a gun, multiple high-capacity magazines, fireworks, and gunpowder have been recovered in the station, law enforcement sources say. and they believe the gun jammed during the shooting. a motive for the attack remains unknown with the suspect still on the loose. >> he is being reported as a male black, approximately 5'5" tall with a heavy build. he was wearing a green construction-type vest and a hooded sweatshirt. the color is gray. >> reporter: investigators located a u-haul cargo van with arizona license plates in connection with the shooting. new york mayor eric adams, who is in isolation recovering from covid-19, told cnn it's too early to dismiss the subway attack as not terror-related. >> this is terror of someone attempted to terrorize our system. they brought in what appears to be some form of smoke device. they discharged a weapon, and so i don't want to be premature in identifying if this was or was not. i think at this time the investigators are going to do their due diligence to properly identify what happened here. >> reporter: new york governor kathy hochul, on-scene, called for an end to new york's recent wave of violent crime. >> and we say no more. no more mass shootings. no more disrupting lives. no more creating heartbreak for people just trying to live their lives as normal new yorkers. it has to end. it ends now. >> reporter: brynn gingras, cnn, new york. >> as we said, the manhunt for that gunman continues, and we will bring you the latest as soon as we have it. a chinese health official is expressing skepticism about efforts to contain the covid outbreak in shanghai. coming up, i'll speak with an expert about whether china needs to rethink its covid strategy. and later, new details about ongoing efforts to free several americans detained in russia and the growing concerns 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(burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. ♪we are farmers.bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum♪ the british prime minister has apologized for breaking covid lockdown rules, but he denies doing it on purpose. boris johnson received some of the dozens of fines issued by london's metropolitan police for attending illegal parties in government buildings during lockdowns. now, one of those gatherings was held on the prime minister's birthday. he and his wife say they've both paid their fines, but the amounts have not been revealed. boris johnson has so far deflected demands for his resignation. >> i have to say in all frankness, at that time it did not occur to me that this might have been a breach of the rules. but of course the police have found otherwise, and i fully respect the outcome of their investigation. >> so this scandal known as party-gate has sparked the most serious threat to the prime minister's leadership yet. now, the deputy director of china's national health commission warns shanghai's covid-19 outbreak has, quote, not been effectively contained. the city's seen tens of thousands of new cases for days with more than 220,000 new infections since march 1st. joining me now from hong kong is dr. ivan hung. he is a clinical professor at the medical faculty and chief of the infectious diseases division at the university of hong kong. it is really good to have you weigh in on this, especially as we learn that more than 26,000 cases reported today in shanghai. it doesn't seem like cases there have yet peaked. from a health perspective, i mean what happens if china now, at this point, tries to move away from these harsh lockdowns? even if it wanted to, what would be the risk at this point? >> well, i think it's understandable that in china they're adopting the zero policy as many elderly people have yet to complete the second or third dose vaccination. they have a very high first dose vaccination rate of 90%, but that was six months ago. they really need to catch up on the second and third dose. if they move away from the dynamic zero policy, then they will have a lot of people coming down with severe disease. and even though it's omicron, because many of the elderly will come down with relatively severe disease. so i think it's advisable and it's the right policy to carry on with the dynamic zero for the time being. but of course this mass testing will not be sustainable. so they really have to think about moving on once people have -- you know, and focus on vaccinating as many elderly people as possible with the three doses, which is proven to work even for the inactivated vaccine in study by the university of hong kong, and they have learned from the hong kong experience. >> so just to be clear here, doctor, you're saying that even with the efficacy of their vaccines, the chinese vaccines, if they started on a mass vaccination program for those third shots and possibly even fourth shots, that they could see a way out of this? >> indeed, yes. as shown by the study at university of hong kong, with three doses of the inactivated vaccine, the protection against severe disease and death is more than 90%. so if everyone can have, like, three doses, especially for the elderly, then, you know, they will be very safe. and then hopefully by, you know, within six months, they will have the second-generation omicron mass vaccine available as a fourth dose booster. >> the solution you're talking about, though, does not do anything especially for those desperate people that are there. the other thing that's at issue here, though, is people's health in general. you know, there are people who can't find medicine for everyday illnesses, not just covid. at this point in time, what's at stake for china's health care system? >> well, i think there are several things. really they might have to consider, you know, stopping the mass testing. once they've isolated a majority of the patients, they should focus on the general health care for other people who are non-covid, who are seeking desperately for, you know, health care for other diseases. and also that they should be focusing on using the antiviral treatment for patients who have -- especially high-risk patient who's have been infected with covid. >> do you think it's sustainable and given the fact that we have another high case count in shanghai today, do you expect that the way omicron works, we will continue to see this throughout china, not just in shanghai? >> yes, i think it's very difficult to using the old strategy to tackle against omicron. so really they should be considering moving away from dynamic zero maybe after like one or two months and to focus on vaccination and also with the antiviral treatment for those high-risk patients. >> you know, doctor, you guys have been through a heck of a time there in hong kong with your own issues. you're hopefully coming out of it in the last few days. what advice would you have at this point given, you know, the fact that so many people suffered through that latest wave in hong kong? >> i think the experience that we have learned from our fifth wave and also we have shared with experts from mainland is that you really need to focus on vaccinating, especially among the elderly, those above 60. they should all receive three doses of vaccine regardless if it's the mrna vaccine or the inactivated vaccine. once we have reached the third dose vaccine, then really the number of cases coming down with severe disease will be relatively few. and the health system will not be under stress. >> the open question is if the chinese government will agree to change tack here because it would be a big change from what they're advocating now. dr. ivan hung, thanks so much. appreciate it. >> thank you. now, just ahead here for us, investigators have begun the difficult task of collecting evidence of potential war crimes in ukraine. plus we'll hear from a journalist who has just returned from villages near chernihiv about the destruction she's seen. stay with us. john vause is back live from ukraine after a break. why hide your skin if dupixent has your moderate to severe eczema or atopic dermatitis under control? hide my skin? not me. by hitting eczema where it counts, dupixent helps heal your skin from within keeping you one step ahead of eczema. hide my skin? not me. and that means long-lasting clearer skin and fast itch relief for adults. with dupixent, you can show more skin with less eczema. hide my skin? not me. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes, including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. when you help heal your skin from within, you can change how your skin looks and feels. and that's the kind of change you notice. talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent, a breakthrough eczema treatment. ♪ life can be a lot to handle. ♪ this magic moment ♪ but heinz knows there's plenty of magic in all that chaos. ♪ so different and so new ♪ ♪ was like any other... ♪ and welcome back. we are recapping one of our top stories. the manhunt that's under way this hour for a gunman who reportedly set off two smoke bombs, then opened fire in a new york city subway. it happened tuesday. authorities say 33 shots were fired, and 10 people were hit including 5 students commuting to school. thankfully all are expected to survive. police named frank james as a person of interest. keys to a u-haul van were found at the scene, and that van was later discovered in brooklyn. police say james rented the van, but they don't know if he has any connection to the subway attack, and he has not been named as a suspect. the bodies of six civilians with gunshot wounds were found in the basement of a home outside the capital city of kyiv. just more evidence of war crimes and atrocities according to the ukrainian prosecutor general, who earlier had spoken to cnn's fred pleitgen. and a warning to our viewers, his report contains some graphic images. >> reporter: even as russian troops mass in eastern ukraine for what the u.s. believes will be a huge offensive, authorities in kyiv continue digging up bodies. painstaking work that goes hand in hand with investigating russia's attack on kyiv and possible crimes committed by vladimir putin's invading troops. the prosecutor general is leading the charge. she spoke to me at the edge of a mass grave in the kyiv suburb of bucha. >> that's why for us, the best motivation is justice. and of course we understand that all ukrainian want fast justice, true and fast justice. that's why we do everything to document all evidence, all facts of war crimes that we have here in ukraine. >> french forensic investigators are also now on the scene, not because ukraine lacks expertise, but because kyiv wants to be as transparent as possible in the face of russian disinformation efforts. >> we want to do our job absolutely open with standards of international humanitarian law. it's very high standards. that's why when here, we have our international colleagues. we understand they can see everything. they can see real situation here, real graves, real dead bodies. >> reporter: after ukrainian forces managed to expel russian troops from around kyiv and some other areas they'd occupied in ukraine, authorities have discovered scores of dead bodies. today another six found in just one basement outside kyiv. the prosecutor tells me they are collecting evidence in thousands of cases. >> now we started more than 6,000 cases. it's war crimes, crimes against humanity, aggression crimes, and we started on the first day. so before we started a case about genocide. >> reporter: all this as russia still claims its forces that invaded ukraine have not harmed any civilians. on a visit , russian president vladimir putin again claimed his forces are fighting against would-be ukrainian nazis in what he calls a, quote, special operation. the goals are absolutely clear and they are noble, he said. i said it from the beginning and want to draw your attention to that. there are some in the u.s. at the top level who have spoken about a possible war crimes trial against vladimir putin. is that something you think could ever be possible and something you're working towards to provide evidence for? >> of course i think that everyone understands who is responsible for this war. that's why we do everything to fix -- to document evidences, but we are here in ukraine and actually understand who is responsible for all of this. >> reporter: the investigators' work is complicated by the fact that the war is still going on, and they can't reach many devastated areas like the encircled city of mariupol, where ukraine's president says tens of thousands have been killed. but iryna says no matter how long it takes, she will press on. >> it's actually extremely important because if we will be successful as a prosecute trix, i can be sure we can stop such aggressions in the future. >> fred pleitgen, cnn, bucha, ukraine. >> joining me now, an independent journalist in kyiv. we appreciate you being with us. i know you had a very late night, so thank you for getting up and making the time. you've just return from some areas outside chernihiv, and some parts have been left in ruins, and in some of these areas the destruction is not on the same level as what we've seen in bucha or borodyanka? why is that? why haven't they suffered the same fate? >> so, yeah, sure. so chernihiv is the capital of the northern region just some 70 kilometers, 40 miles from the russian border and from the belarusian border. the area outside chernihiv has been occupied by the russian troops within the first maybe five, seven hours of the war. so the majority of the troops moved north in the direction of kyiv. however, they were not able to overtake the city where 300,000 people live. there are quite astonishing destruction. to be honest, it's bigger than borodyanka. i've been in some areas where, you know, outside of the town where almost little houses remain. but the difference is that these are villages. bucha and irpin, maybe that's why they look so significant. they are residential area with high buildings. in there, we speak about the villages. so maybe for some people, it won't look as impressive, but unfortunately, you know, a lot of houses, a lot of people are taken. but something to tell more, the city was for months under the siege. the city is quite large. they still don't have -- the people didn't have water because the water pumps had been targeted. they didn't have electricity, and we're speaking quite a large town. it's about now to be fixed, both electricity and water, and people are a bit coming back to life to the town. but we're speaking about dozens and maybe even more villages which for one month were living -- where russian troops were living. so there we see various different stories. of course the scale could be different because, for instance, bucha is 30,000 people, and the village would be 1,000 people. but, for instance, i've been to a village on the outskirts of chernihiv. so there was the case when -- >> natalia, let me jump in there for a moment. let you clear your throat and just ask you this question. i know that you've had a very hard, late night, so we appreciate you again being with us. but you mentioned that a lot of residents in these areas had actually been -- have disappeared. do you know where they are? are they accounted for because we're not hearing these stories coming from this area outside chernihiv? >> i do think that it's -- we are not yet hearing the stories. the journalists would go travel there. it takes a lot of time. there was no access to those areas because the cities and the villages are situated on the rivers, and most of the bridges were blown up. so that was the problem why there is no fuel in this area. so any trip to there, it's a bit of an adventure. you need to take care about that. so a lot of places were yet not visited by the journalists. but something to tell that i managed to be probably about six villages. and, yes, in every village we hear the stories about people, for instance, being detained, the people being -- there were people who were shot. probably the scale would be different, but for a village, three, four, five, seven people would be an impressive amount. but in one of them, the story which we find quite outstanding, 370 people for one month, they were pushed and taken by the russian troops to the basement of the school and were not allowed to go out. they spent their time there while the russian troops used the school as their military base full of equipment. so the strategy was that they won't be attacked because the whole village is actually living under them. it was quite a horrific conditions. some elderly couldn't really survive that situation, and also people saying that they were -- you know, some of the soldiers were deliberately rude. so it's a bit different dynamics because there for one month, the russian soldiers were living in the houses of the people, with the people in there basements, because they tried to stay exactly with the people not to be targeted. but these stories, that's still the story to be told because we're speaking about many, many places. and in one, just to add, the first three villages i visited just by occasion, i met a man who would say, i lost my son. my son has been killed. it doesn't mean that everybody is like that, but for journalists, if you have this, it shows also quite a specific dynamic. >> natalia, we thank you very much for your reporting. thank you for shedding light on what's happening in these small villages around ukraine. it's very much appreciated. thank you very much for being with us today. u.s. state department calling on moscow not to treat americans detained in russia any differently because of the horrific events in ukraine. the biden administration says it believes 31-year-old trevor reed needs urgent medical care while the u.s. citizen remains in a russian prison. reed is one of three americans waging high profile legal fights to be freed from detention in russia as the nation grows further isolated from the rest of the world. cnn's brian todd has more. >> reporter: after spending nearly two months in a russian jail, serious concerns about the condition of star american basketball player brittney griner, concerns voiced by the head of the wnba players union on nbc. >> we're really most concerned about her health and safety, especially her mental health. we're hearing in that respect, she's okay. >> reporter: the wnba commissioner says griner, jailed on conditions she was carrying cannabis at the airport, is safe and getting access to her legal team in russia. >> we're trying everything we can, every angle, working through with her legal representation, her agent, elected leaders, the administration. >> reporter: griner has been able to see her representative in russia twice a week and is able to receive letters and correspondence, sources tell espn. but vladimir putin's war in ukraine could dash any hopes for a speedy release. >> he's not going to release anyone that he has in custody. he's going to try to use it as he has been probably behind the scenes all along as a bargaining chip to get something from us. >> there's very little the u.s. government can do right now. we have very limited leverage over russia for very obvious reasons right now given the political situation. >> reporter: one former u.s. official believes putin has strong motivation to keep holding griner. the fact that she's a u.s. olympic gold medalist. >> remember, she was seized in february right after the olympics when russia was roundly embarrassed yet again for doping of its olympic athletes. and so this might be also a way of getting revenge at the u.s. olympic committee. >> reporter: another american held in russia, trevor reed, on tuesday had a court appearance by video, where his appeal was kicked back to a lower court. his parents are worried he may have tuberculosis. >> he looks terrible in that shot that they had on the weet and we're really concerned because he really looks thin. >> reporter: u.s. officials openly concerned about reed's health. >> we do believe that he needs urgent treatment to prevent any further deterioration in his medical condition. >> reporter: reed was sentenced to nine years for allegedly endangering the lives of russian police officers while drunk, which his family and u.s. officials deny. on tuesday, reed's father made a bold statement about his son's situation. >> they're taking him for trade, and that's what they want, and he's not coming home unless they get that. >> reporter: could brittney griner, trevor reed, or the other american detained in russia, paul whelan, be traded? >> they're extremely rare and in the current political situation, it would be especially difficult to arrange something like that, not impossible but extremely difficult in the current conditions. >> reporter: the analyst we spoke to say it's a risky strategy for family members and others to speak out so often on behalf of these detainees in russia, especially now given that it might irritate vladimir putin even more. and recently, wnba superstar lisa leslie said people in the women's basketball world were told not to make a big fuss out of brittney griner's case out of concern that she might be used as a pawn while the ukraine war is still going on. brian todd, cnn, washington. i'll see you again at the top of the hour. in the meantime, paula newton will be back after the break with details on the u.s. president, joe biden, heading to america's heartland, announcing new measures to tackle soaring prices. he's 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>> aflac! >> gottfried's family tweeted we are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved gilbert gottfried after a long illness. although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in gilbert's honor. such a nice tribute to him his family gave him. i'm paula newton at cnn center. we will be right back with more news with john vause live in ukraine and rosemary church right here at cnn center in atlanta. 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