now grown in greenhouses much further north to go now and if areas in which subtropical fruits can be grown are expanding towards the southern central and northern parts of the country in japan in recent years the warming climate has meant more devastating summer rains and floods while the korean peninsula has suffered from more destructive typhoons the early blossom may portend a change in climate that will bring more extreme weather come the summer months but for now appearing all the more beautiful given the fragility and transients of its existence the blossom is here to be cherished robert bright al-jazeera so. clever sound is there and is the headlines millions across europe are set to mark easter sunday under a new coronavirus restrictions france begins its faired national lockdown on

saturday in italy we're trying to stricter measures after a surgeon caissons and a barber has more now from london president emmanuel mccall has been reminding people that very is a high number of people particularly under the age of 60 in intensive care units in hospitals around the country extra staff being brought in over the easter period now france is actually trying to speed up its vaccination program right now in the next 3 days places like football stadiums in major french cities are being used so that thousands of people can come and get at least their 1st dose of a covered 19 job. meanwhile germany's president has conceded that mistakes were made regarding corona virus testing and vaccinations thousands rallied against private 1000 measures and start gotten valin president frank also steinmeier says germany is enjoying a crisis of trust for confusing restrictions on the government's response to this

pandemic. at least 5 more people have been killed in myanmar and the latest military crackdown against anti crew protesters gunshots were heard in a number of cities as demonstrators again took to the streets. and people too are demonstrating in several u.k. cities against a bill that would give police more powers to break up protests and ripley said time and noise limits on rallies activists say it's designed to suppress dissent and right now egypt is moving some of its royal mummies to a new home the remains of 22 ancient monarchs are being transferred to cairo's recently inaugurated national museum of egyptian civilization the so-called golden parade is just about to get underway with film stars don't says and sing is a scorching the royal mummies the multi-million dollar pharaohs procession is expected to help resurrect egypt struggling tourism industry. well those are the headlines i have a news hour for you here on al-jazeera to inside story stay with us.

a sharp escalation in fighting in eastern ukraine and reports of a russian troop build up at the border they could signal into another cease fire in the region so what's next for a conflict now and it. is there any chance of a lasting peace this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. efforts to resolve the 7 year war in eastern ukraine have all so far failed there have been cease fires and then almost

inevitably violations of cease fires but a major flare up in fighting between russian backed separatists and ukrainian troops is now threatening to escalate the conflict beyond anything we've seen so far russia is reportedly massing its troops at the border and warning nato not to send military support to ukraine but the alliance and the united states have made it clear kiev will not be left alone if russia launches an offensive in the region we'll discuss this with our guests shortly but 1st now the in baba reports. it's pictures like this that have got the government in kiev so concerned a week ago 4 ukrainian soldiers were killed in fighting in the east now here is accusing russia of preparing to expand its military presence in the separatist controlled regions of done yes going to hanscom as well as the border with crimea to the south moscow maya but openly visco in the heat dying on thursday ukraine's foreign minister called on moscow to quote immediately and unconditionally reaffirm

its commitment to a political and diplomatic settlement and a cease fire regime now president joe biden has spoken directly with the ukrainian leader flooding is alinsky the white house says he affirmed the united states is unwavering support for ukraine sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of russia's ongoing aggression my bedtime now we discuss the situation in the bus in detail president biden assured us that ukraine will never be left alone against russia's aggression. or c. . russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov says any new conflict in the east would quote destroy ukraine. he's warned against incitement by western powers with the nato defense alliance saying it's concerned about a russian build up moscow says the real threat is nato sending troops to ukraine. undoubtedly such a scenario would lead to a further increase of tension near the russian border of course this will require

additional security measures from the russian side in february 2040 in the so-called my down revolution so ukraine's russia friendly president viktor yushchenko bitch deposed and the opposition take power the next month russian forces are next crisis from ukraine prompting western sanctions in april 24 team pro russian separatists seized part of the eastern donbass region starting the internal military conflict in ukraine. in 2019 television act of law to ms alinsky was elected ukraine's president he and president putin agreed to exchange prisoners and commit to a cease fire last july a cease fire with them yet 6 separate ists was agreed but it's close to breaking and now the ukrainian leaders provoked a russian anger he went after the draw russian media empire belonging 'd to one of russia's lighted wouldn't problems in ukraine closing down 3 russian t.v. channels and severely weakening the influence of pro russian never created keep in

mind russian overarching goal is always the 2 are keep the will these regimes in the donetsk and luhansk there and you agree. despite the latest warnings it's not clear whether there's been a real change the organization for security and cooperation in europe says there are far fewer ceasefire violations the last summer before the agreement came into force. al-jazeera. alright let's bring in our panel joining us from moscow pavel felgenhauer a defense analyst and columnist for now via gazeta in kipp alexy houghton a professor of comparative politics at cair academy and in washington d.c. richard white says security analyst at the strategic consultancy strap welcome to you all pablo let me start with you today from your vantage point does it look like

this situation is going to escalate and how likely or unlikely is it that this is going to boil into actual conflict. both already a month or so there has been a lot of talk in the russian press about the situation and the don bias yet thing worse about the skull ation that there will be any big war and everybody understands that it's right now of course impossible so that there are some shared things happening there maybe not so big she actually crashed as some skirmishes and that done by us they're a bit overplayed by the press but in the future somewhere everyone is talking right now about the beginning of may. there can be big confrontation over a major escalation of the as still a tease in the entire region because right now of course the snow is just melting

still in russia and in ukraine the fields are her sea of dirt go that us boots inside that means a man over a bowl warfare is basically impossible but by made should dry up and then everyone apparently is going to be ready and there's lots of talk that grain is going to attack that russia is going to get in but that the west is going to get involved and a lot of scarce chorus stories around here in moscow well like see how worried are people in ukraine right now and how worried is the government we are all of a very divided in general i agree and with this well analysis well my religious spec and my question to buy a bottle do it believes if you can raise go into it that frankly speaking no. i believe not because that's what we hear from kremlin it's not

a but it's not in our 'd interest to have a mess confrontation of what to be seen now in terms of don't bust well we'll call the skirmishes but let me remind you has it officially what we have right now is a fool door though cease fire and nevertheless there is an aggravation and since the beginning of this year certainly ukrainian soldiers we're killed soul deaths the problems of problems that we don't have ceasefire actually is a ceasefire was promised in september 2014 but since since there was no way he'll ceasefire so. what portugal is doing good i not mean he's definitely trying to test has a vest 2 steps then you will if they're good president of the united states and

also he's going to test ukraine ukrainian government as well and i believe that we will have disabilities to talk about this in a bit richard if you could expand on something that alexey was saying just there he said that he believes that this is essentially a test by russia's president vladimir putin to see how far he can go when it comes to joe biden and see what kind of reaction he can elicit from the biden administration and what are your thoughts on that and also just how concerned is the u.s. about all this right now. sure the the thinking here is this is a concern but there's not an expectation then imminent russian military attack on ukraine the factors that appear to be driving the recent war scare are several at home and we know president putin's popularity is under

a strain there's been a lot of focus on the protest and so having a war scare can be useful for distracting people's attention as in a new crane we've seen the government there take some firm steps recently against russian influence reigning in 7 the russian media. president selenski is proving tougher than i think the russians in to supinate had and as was mentioned possibly this is an effort to test the new biden ministration we know that other countries are doing this north korea with this missile test and so on and you know biden has a record with ukraine a strongly supporting the government but the us of course is just strapped it by a bunch of challenges at home and abroad so maybe the russians are probing the depth of the u.s. commitment and i would also add in the european and trans-atlantic dimensions i think the you know there were some talks between the presidents of russia has in

germany and france maybe they russians think they see an opening to try nixon white differences between the allies so i think all these factors may work but again there's not expect taste of. imminent military action particularly since the u.s. took a very firm stand it had president biden for the 1st time call the president of ukraine we've also had a change of the phone calls between other senior u.s. and ukrainian leaders probably heard richard there talk about the fact that president putin has been bristling from these anti-government demonstrations that happened in january over the treatment of alexian. vali you know there are some who say that the timing of this may be more than just coincidental you have also putin coming under criticism for his response to the coronavirus you also have russian parliamentary elections that are scheduled to happen in september could all this be chalked up to president putin trying to reenter gys his base.

to some extent yes but it's a bit more complicated. the kremlin buton believes that the west is now began a war began who are against russia hybrid wars being waged against russia and personally against him to deal egypt applies his regime. that bonnie was specifically landed in january to raise havoc here in russia can i comment situation is not very nice that household incomes have been decreasing for almost 10 years slowly but steadily and are up narratives so in 10 years they decreased about 15 percent that's a real income of households in russia and that's bad for any political regime in any country that's a big danger. and sell the goods and believes that the west the russian elite

believes that the west is for actually fighting them and russia should push back relations with the united states are not simply bad they're very bad but i've been called boots in the killer that means he wants him out that means the west once said regime change relations with european union are said to be 0 so in a situation when the political level of relations is almost 0 the russian ambassador was recalled from washington that never happened during the cold war and he's still in moscow i assume that's most apriori situation or something close to it so instead you're in such a position moscow maybe you would believe the kremlin believe it's not to push the front line in the don't boss away from crimea say well like see let me let me ask you this. week we pause there for

a 2nd let me go ahead and jump to alexey and ask him a quick follow up question you know there are ukrainian officials who have urged deescalation what are the steps need to be taken in order to deescalate the situation right now. well 1st of all i seen that's easier to keep to keep the cease fire you know what we haven't said don't buy us and don't buy us we have more scores proxies they're not independent they're controlled by more school so and all the hysteria was a concert in the bus shows that event would like to he's going to discrete this escalation he can easily do that but again several reasons now and we have discussed at the that decided to decided to escalate so that order from the kremlin would be is the 1st and the most important steps forward. for

a cease fire and serve there are other things which will be and actually is that the ground you know with the role of troops. some other sins against these forces fire which was called. in some a last year event including a lot of measures a lot of measures in order to to inforce a ceasefire but unfortunately there is not ceasefire and we got in 40 years over mr putin that we have the joke that mr in a violent poisoned himself in order to overthrow putin's putin's regime to create a background for accusing mr putin's men and egg thing. regarding where there's a large scale war may happen i don't want to get here with military and political analysis by by partial but to be sure the member indoor sauza and full team

net a few people who could predict center russian russian irregular forces would it be a instant on us that the russians would. ukrainians very few people actually. predicted center russia would next craney a so at zip time if you ask me i'm ukrainian speaking russian so if you ask me do i believe that the russian soldiers would be p.-a in ukraine killing ukrainians i would say no maybe i'm a better analyst but many people would say no it's impossible and unfortunately. so dealing with russia yes there is some you know actual seeing which seeing which says that's no it's not going to be a large scale military operation but you never sure richard there by the

ministrations been working hard to rebuild alliances with nato countries in the wake of all the chaos of the trump years are those allies now feeling confident that the u.s. will stand with them when it comes to any potential confrontations with russia. i think so i mean is a question that broader than that in that there was there's been some concern that the allies and cells are divided over russia you've got some nato partners that want to make a take a very firm stance and others that want to more cooperate are approaching you're seeing this particularly in the case of the north stream pipeline debate within the alliance oh yes part of the u.s. effort has been to reaffirm u.s. ties to the alliance which i would argue were strong and even in the trumpet ministration but they've been they've taken steps to reinforce that and but also you're still seeing disputes over the question of the pipeline perhaps nato

spending you know they had some recent meetings lately but on the question of ukraine the alliances and the europeans and the americans stood very firm to i would not have expected the e.u. for example to keep on rolling over its extensive sanctions since it would just take one e.u. state block them against russia for its actions in ukraine but we've got a fairly extensive network of u.s. european both nato and non nato member sanctions on russia so i think on the ukraine question there's been pretty strong solidarity that russia needs to roll back its ambitions in ukraine we store territory on top 30 that the country stop interference internal affairs and so on follow from your vantage point is there any hope that peace talks could get back on track anytime soon. woking of the operational peace talks of the 3 side. talks on in their means

so-called means crame where they are right now calculate deadlock everyone agrees on that that nothing's happening there that people are just sort of staking positions that are not complying to each other there i mean they need to have some talks but no it's not nothing's at the top of that. there are attempts by european countries france and germany to try to find that to move something forward find some kind of way to defuse a situation which is getting a lot of people in europe really scared i have had contacts with top european diplomats who wanted to know my opinion on what's happening because they're scared in brussels right now they have bassett there's the nato ambassadors european union sitting down there trying to figure out what to do how to respond are the russians

really ready to go or it's just a lot of hot air. i would believe basically that puts in his 20 years i mean record shows that he's not basically a conqueror much i don't believe that he mostly would want to horse trade but the horse trade from position of strength and maybe improve the situation on the ground a bit no one at worse right now on another side east or west wants this to develop into. a big regional war or no you know european continent know the potential that it's not 0 doesn't exist. troops are being moved forward russia's not denying that it moved for troops to the ukrainian border the kremlin announced that we have the right to move our troops in inside russia where we wish. 3

russian. major assault vessels from the baltic sea on the 21st of march steam through the channel nine's of british reports that going south patent maybe you have the black sea maybe there is a major landing assault operation being planned or of the potential to do such a thing so the threats are growing and the diplomacy is lagging and that's a very bad situation alexi it's been over 6 years since the men's 2 agreement was signed where the terms of that agreement ever implemented properly this should answer is no. again where some of them stood implemented at least. part of your means agreements basically the cease fire and from time to time we have disturbed the

ceasefire but. if it goes to escalation again let me remind you that after the president's eleventh's he was elected he used very very peaceful wrestling selenski was a very inexperienced in poor dick's an idiot i would say naive import with x. and he said it's just necessary to sit down this is his famous phrase i need to see it down to sports hill to see him each answer and we'll discuss what do you want what can be do and we will do sums up the set up there's a lens election him he mate very important symbolic concessions to porton which eyes of ukrainian opposition where

very very bare so selenski did it so he he made concessions that will but the end of the day you know he didn't receive what he wanted for ceasefire and basically this is one of the reasons why zelinsky decided to close down city prashant channels in the ukraine and is this channels have nothing to do with freedom of speech as a just you know. example of my brilliant war which bible mentions and we call it hybrid war because russia is doing it not only in owns a front line but also within ukraine was in other countries trying to best of allies a city. richard let me ask you actually it is a 2 part question the 1st is what is the level of commitment by the ministration

toward ukraine in the 2nd thing is do you think we could see immense 3 agreement anytime soon i would say 1st the level of u.s. commitment to crane under biden is very strong and they're going to continue the decision of the trumpet ministration to build up and supply the ukrainian military with defensive weapons and training and there's extensive diplomatic support there there was some questioning in the past over the past month why president biden called presents a landscape but i think you know in the last series of phone calls last few days assault that that question. and in terms of what was the 2nd question is do you think that we can see a minsk 3 agreement anytime soon. well i mean the problem with them in structure is you don't have all the important players prickly united states so i mean the british the french and the russians and ukrainians can go so far but it could be

useful to have a tip to widen the format to allow for a wider range of possible trade offs discussions right now the u.s. can't join mint because that would require the consent of all the parties and the russians would have jacked but a new format there are other structures and weren't as well they all with the is working to a trilateral format with the out with the russians and ukrainians i think it's less . of a mechanism and format and more of a problem that there's just not an agreement on the ends whatever they say in paper i think that the current russian government likes the present situation where it can dial up and down tensions regarding ukraine for tactical advantage and i don't see anything fundamentally changing in russian policy as modern as the current

government is in power there all right we've run out of time so we're going to have to leave the conversation there thank you so much to all of our guests power felgenhauer all lexy her on and richard whites and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page at facebook dot com for response a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story for me my gentleman the whole team here by phone out.

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