this edition of "inside story." thank you for being with us. in washington, i'm ray suarez. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we are following for you. diplomatic efforts to stabilize the situation? ukraine. secretary of state john kerry meeting with russian's foreign minister in paris. >> crimea, was, is, and will be an integral part of the state of ukraine. >> ukraine's new prime minister talking about those tensions in crimea. as russian navy ships remain in the port. and the american fighter jet

that is costing taxpayers a fortune right now. ♪ top diplomats trying to end the crisis in ukraine gathering in paris. john kerry is in paris trying to diffuse the crisis in ukraine. earlier today, his counterpart climbing there are no russian forces on the ground. >> the people do not listen to our orders, but the russian military forces in the black sea fleet are placed at the right spots a and some special alert measures have been adopted to control the black sea feet,

because as our president said we are not going to allow any blood to be spilled. >> phil ittner joins us live now from paris. >> del, sergey lavrov may say there are no troops, but as far as the west is concerned those are russian troops. it appears as though the tactic is going to be economic. here is what the european commission president had to say today. >> today the european commission has identified a package to support ukraine. this is our contribution to tomorrow meetings of the sitting government. the package combined could bring an overall support of at least 11 billion euros over the next couple of years, from european

budget and european union international financial institutions. it is a package designed to assist a committed includive and reforms oriented ukrainian government. >> well, 11 billion euros is about $15 billion. exactly what the kremlin offered ukraine before this whole thing started to stay away from the eu, and the europeans are saying they are going to create a free trade zone effective immediately. and they intend to freeze the assets of those in previous regime, and return that to the ukraine. >> there are still demonstrators gathered behind you, what are they saying about this latest diplomatic round of talks? >> well, they are deeply concerned about the economic talks for a number of reasons.

there is a growing feeling here that their fate is now out of their own hands. they have come to this square to make their voice known, but now there is a concern that the decision on what will happen on this crisis will be decided in d.c., moscow, paris, not kiev. >> phil thank you very much. the organization for cooperation, says it is sending military operations to ukraine. the mission was requested by pro-western authorities in kiev. their mission is scheduled to last until march 12th. meanwhile, defense secretary chuck hagel spelling out the u.s. military role in ukraine today. >> we are pursuing measures to support our allies, including

stepping up joint training in poland, an area i visited a few weeks ago. and augmenting our participation in nato's air policing mission on the baltic peninsula. senator john mccain asking chuck hagel plainly is this the right time to reduce the military. >> your timing is exquisite. you are coming over here with a budget that we agree on, at least on the numbers at a time when the world is probably more unsettled than it has been since the end of world war ii. the invasion of crimea, geneva 2 collapse, iran negotiations stalled, the south china sea, china more and more aggressive, north korea fired missiles in

the last few days, syria has now turned into a regional conflict, and the list goes on. >> meanwhile in crimea, some yooun -- ukrainian socialeds are being forced to choose sides. >> reporter: if there is somewhere this crimea where russians have full control it is here. ships block all traffic in this port. this is an easy target for the russians, but if their intention is to take over all ukrainian military installations in crimea, then their mission is not over yesterday. ukrainian servicemen have refused to yelled to this russian show of force. we managed to speak to some of the ukrainian service men through the gate here. they said they haven't received

any ultimatum yet. they said they had no intention to surrender the base because they pledged loyalty to ukraine and they hope this will be solved peacefully. the soldiers are digging in for the long hall, relying on the support of relatives to keep them going while politicians try to reach a compromise. >> translator: this story has two sides on the one hand my son has to obey the ukrainian government that he pledged to serve. since the government changed, the situation is different and our children are suffering. >> reporter: the crisis is clearly polarizing opinions in crimea. servicemen are coming under pressure to take sides in a place with strong roots in both russia and ukraine. russians are not invaders this mother shouts at her son and comrades. they try to explain they are caught in the middle, but she is

not convinced. >> translator: we are on our land. this is ukrainian territory. many people don't understand us. here we are from the east, west, and south, there are different opinions and people are stressed out. it's hard. >> reporter: as the crisis deepens in crimea, perhaps one of the biggest challenges for the ukrainian military is to stay disciplined in the face of growing divisions in the country they swore to serve. and jennifer glasse is live right now in the port. hoda mentioning the russian strong hold. give us an update on what is happening here the port today. >> reporter: well, del, russian ships outside the harbors continue to blockade all of the ukrainian ships here. they control the harbor behind

me, and the days that are home to the russian and ukrainian black sea fleet. this is a naval town but has been home to both the russian and black sea fleets. they were divided in 1998, 80% of the fleet went to russian and 20% went to ukraine. they live together here, the officers work together here, there is one base that is still a joint base here, so this divide is very, very deep for many of the people here. it is pitting neighbor against neighbor, one woman told her husband is go ing to have to leave because this is going to become part of russia and because he is ukrainian and won't switch sides and they will have to leave. >> jennifer any indication that the russian presence is going to decrease? >> reporter: no, del, the

russians are dug in very deep. they are blockading every military installation here. they are outside the naval headquarters, we saw them outside of the communications base. they keep renewing their calls for the ukrainians to turn over their weapons and the sailors to sign an allegiance there. and some of the soldiers have been getting threatening phone calls from unphone people saying they know where their families live and where their children go to school to try to pressure them into turning things over. a lot of psychological pressure here and civilians are alongside the uniformed russian soldiers as well. putting pleasure and blockading the naval headquarters and a number of other installations. >> give us an idea of the mood of the people right now. how are they holding up?

>> reporter: you know, a lot of people -- it is a naval town. the navy is their life. there is so much connected to the military here. there's a large ethnic russian population here. this town only become under russian control in 1978. so it has been also been very closely connected to moscow. you see russian flags flying in many places, and the town is divided. people are going on about their daily basis, but there is concern that somebody might do something stupid and start fighting. >> jennifer glasse live for us from ukraine. thank you very much. on wall street investors are keeping a close watch on the situation in ukraine after a very bearish reaction on monday the markets have now stabilize. a soft employment report putting the lid on yesterday's big rally. oil prices are also

retreating. the cost of a barrel now dipping below $103 a barrel today. and stocks in emerging markets are rising for a second day, russian stocks are down slightly, and the ruble is recovering from near record lows. and remember for the latest represents coming out of ukraine and the rest of today's headlines, you can follow us on twitter. celebrations and protest on the streets of venezuela today. supporters of the late hugo chavez selling -- celebrating the anniversary of his death. chuck hangel testifying about his budget today. one problem, though, defending this fighter jet. it costs millions and no one has flown it.

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america. i'm del walters. the west virginia state house will vote today on a water protection bill that some believe is being watered down. they are trying to prevent another chemical spill like the one that contaminated the water back in january. robert ray is in charleston west virginia, robert give us the details of the bill. >> reporter: del, let me give you breaking news real quick. we are told because the judiciary committee and the financial committee cannot agree on some of the information and -- and amendments inside this bill, that they will be 14 new amendments that will be discussed later in the day before the vote even occurs. those being brought to the table by the judiciary committee, when the bill got into the finance committees hands earlier this week, a lot of things as you said were watered down.

one recovering long term-medical monitoring. that was proposed and pushed by the health department and many health officials here in the state because they wanted to find out exactly what the long-term consequences were of this chemical on people, because as we remember very little research has been done on people. and they removed the early warning sign system for chemicals that make their way into the water supply, but the lob lob lob lobbyists pushed really hard and got that removed. so if the vote comes into play later tonight, it seems like there will be a lot of grappling going on here. del? >> is this going to lead to changes in other states? >> reporter: it certainly could. though, if this is an indication

of how much the industry has a vice grip on lawmakers, it's going to be quite the fight. in fact on the federal level, the clean water act that was dismissed over a year ago because of the complicated nature of the bill has been talked about over and over again since the spill on january 9th. perhaps that will come back into play on a federal level and we'll see sweeping changes. but we'll have to see what happens here in west virginia. they may have to come to the table again, they have until saturday midnight when the session ends. del? >> robert ray in charleston, west virginia thank you very much. target is making an executive change. the company's chief information security officer is stepping down. target says itsdz is overhauling the division in the wake of that

massive data breach that lead to a big drop in profits. payroll firm adp saying the private sector adding a smaller than expected 139,000 jobs in february. that report is a prelude to friday's report coming out from the labor department. the private sector paying off for ben bernanke. he was paid at least $250,000 for a speech. earning more in 20 minutes than we did all last year as head of the fed. united airlines is forcing carry on size restrictions. passengers are being sent back to the ticket counter if their bag doesn't fit and they will have to pay the $25 fee. defense secretary chuck hagel appearing before the

senate armed services committee this morning. >> the air force as you have noted will retire the a-10. replacing it with more modern and sophisticated multi-mission fighters like the joint strike fighter. >> but that has always come with delays and budget overruns, rosiland jordan reports. >> reporter: the joint strike fighter, better known as the f-35, is supposed to be all things to all branches of the u.s. military. able to evade enemy radar, capable of supersonic speed and able to langd and takeoff like a helicopter, but since the pentagon unveiled the f-35 in 2001, turning its plans in to a fully capable jet has been problematic. >> almost every hardware program the pentagon buys costs twice as much, is delivered so slowly,

it's twice as long as when they said they would deliver it, and gives you about half of the performance you thought you were going to get. >> reporter: the special helmet makes pilots dizzy. when the jet reaches supersonic speed the stealth painting melts off. those are just some of the problems in a program now costing tax pairs $392 billion over its life 250i78. that's 70% more than originally projected. and while pilots are conducting test flights, not a single yet is ready to go into combat. one day the pentagon says it will buy more than 2400

why so few? budget cuts. every program has to be trimmed to save money. >> the reality of reduced resources and a challenging and changing strategic environment requires us to prioritize and make difficult choices. some of those choices we must make now. >> reporter: despite the many problems and the cost overruns, the military has no plans to scrap the f-35. it argues current fighter jets are on sol bleat, and china and russia are developing fighters that will out fly and outgun the american fleet. rosiland jordan, al jazeera, washington. and we are following breaking news coming out of ukraine right now. we're going to go to nick schifrin who is there. there is a developing situation

outside of a cafe that involves a un enjoy. nick what are you seeing and hearing? >> reporter: well, what we saw for upwards of an hour is robert [ inaudible ] who is the special representative for the secretary general who has been here trying to figure out a way out of this crisis, he was meeting with some journalists in a cafe, and that's when a group of pro-russian militia members effectively blockaded him inside the cafe. journalists heard about it and rushed to the scene, and that's when a group of about 30 or 40 pro-russian demonstrators showed up, chanting russia, chanting putin. they created a line, and through wish, he was taken into a waiting car that was being driven by those militia members,

and they have now taken him, and it's not clear where they have taken him to. earlier we were hearing they were asking him to leave crimea, go to the airport immediately. he refused, so possibly they have taken him to the airport. but he has been taken hostage inside of a car against his own will. >> so it's another example of this proeuropean union, prorussian tension. >> it's very much prorussian, what these mobs are basically are against what is happening in kiev. they are for the russian intervention, the russian occupation here in crimea. and we were held yesterday for two and a half hours by a similar mob of about 150 people. this time they held the secretary general deputy representative here, and essentially are either taking

him somewhere and holding him, or perhaps taking him to the airport and basically forcing him to leave crimea, itself a sign not only of these pro-russian groups being emboldened, but to a certain extent law and order at least in this town, really falling by the wayside. these are basically mobs, militia members attached to them, who are doing this, and i just tried to talk to the police who were on the other side of the street watching this happen, and they refused to engage with me, or discuss why they weren't able or willing to stop this from happening. >> we heard what seemed to be a little tussle as you were talking earlier. are you okay? >> reporter: yeah, we're fine. we weren't the target today. yesterday we were held as we left the ukrainian base for 2.5 hours, and threatened, the crowd said that were going to flip our

van over, and they started counting down from 10, and we had to show them our video, so eventually they let us go. clearly people feeling that they need to force journalists or representatives of what they see as the west, the united nations out of crimea, making the point that they are for the russian intervention, the russian invasion, and they are taking the law into their own hands to make that point. >> nick schifrin live in the crimean region. a un envoy there being forced into a car, and nick says he has no idea at this hour where he is. coming up on al jazeera america, a look at the day's top stories.

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here are your headlines. breaking news a un envoy being ceased out of a cafe in crimea. he has been identified as robert sary. he has been forced into a car, and taken someplace, nick believes he was taken to the airport possibly being escorted out of the country. secretary of state john kerry is in paris trying to

diffuse the crisis in ukraine. russian ships surrounding the port, the ships in the black sea fleet are blocking all of the traffic in the area. many ukrainian soldiers are holding their ground. the west virginia state house set to vote on a water protection bill. if passed, the bill would effect 150 public water companies. and as we have been indicating throughout the afternoon, secretary of state john kerry is moments away from his news conference in paris. he is meeting with his russian counterpart sergei loavrov. we'll have much more when al jazeera america returns.

>> start with one issue ad guests on all sides of the debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5pm et / 2pm pt only on al jazeera america russia, as long as none of us are inside of ukraine trying welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm dell in new york. we want to continue our breaking news story that we are following at this