executive committee meets on monday the superleague announcement has no doubt added a few things to the agenda david stokes al-jazeera. a lot of breaking news around this morning you can find a lot more background on pictures and all the stories on our website al-jazeera don't know. this is all just here of these of the top stories from russian state media saying kremlin critic alexina vonnie is being transferred to a hospital for prisoners his allies have called for demonstrations on wednesday which the kremlin says will be considered illegal the u.s. has warned of consequences if he dies in prison well earlier the e.u. foreign policy chief said russia is responsible for me and must provide him with medical care very much worried about the health situation at least in the valley

yesterday we finished a minute behavior the 27 member states hosking to russian authorities to provide. the health care he needs and they are responsible for their safety india's capital region of delhi will be under a week long curfew for monday night as the country battles a record surge in infections in the 274000 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours and more than 1600 deaths there's concern a new variant identified in india could be driving infections hundreds of passengers from the sternly have arrived in new zealand after their governments reopen borders families and friends are reuniting after the 2 countries launched a so-called travel bubble on monday it allows quarantine free travel for the 1st time in more than a year is ill and in australia shut their borders to almost everyone except residents and citizens in march 2020. a monitoring group in may and mars warning

the military will continue to torture and murder pro-democracy activists of the international community doesn't act the plea was made after state t.v. broadcast images of 6 detainees. a banned political party in pakistan has released 11 police officers that took hostage during protests and sunday police had earlier raided the offices of the break which led to violent protests that killed 3 people a huge fire in cape town has ravaged large parts of table mountain slopes about the newmans neighborhood are in flames more residential areas are threatened us space agency nasa has made history by successfully flying a helicopter on mars provides called ingenuity it's powered by solar batteries and it's controlled by a team here on earth it was sent by month to mars attach the perseverance rover which touched down in february those are the headlines will have more in about half an hour go by.

well russia would go to war against ukraine moscow masses its troops along the border what prompted the escalation how much of a threat is it to ukraine's unity this is inside story. alone welcome to the show i'm sami's a than concerns are growing of a possible war between russia and ukraine the 2 have been in dispute since 2014 when russia and the crimea and back separatists fighting government troops in

eastern ukraine there had been a relative stalemate in fighting cease fires and violations of cease fires but the situation is now on the brink of a major escalation kiev has expel the russian diplomat in response to a similar move by moscow and russian president vladimir putin is beefing up his nation's naval presence in the black sea the international community is alarmed well since the start of the year there's been more fighting in eastern ukraine then last month russia deployed its largest military buildup near ukraine's border since 2014 nato warned russia it won't leave kiev on its own and urged moscow to withdraw its troops u.s. president joe biden called on vladimir putin to deescalate tensions he's proposed a summit with the russian president european leaders also demanded russian forces a pullback from the border ukraine's the they're held talks with the french

president and german chancellor in paris on friday under serious chiles transferred reports from kiev on people's fears. ukrainian soldiers on the front line on the highest level of alert since the signing of an often violated cease fire agreement with the pro russian separatists 7 years ago russia says its deployment of an estimated 100000 soldiers and heavy weaponry to areas near the border with ukraine poses no threat ukrainian military say they are preparing for the worst. i was mobilized and came back to the front line i believe this is a crucial moment to defend my country world leaders and nato have urged moscow to pull back its forces most of these houses were destroyed in fighting in 2015 around a 1000000 people live in a 10 kilometer wide so-called contact zone the stretches on both sides across the

front line oxana says she fled with her son genya from separatist controlled areas 2 years ago yet that's true. i have lived here since 2019 i used to live in our lives but i had to flee because of my political views it has been quiet days but this is the 2nd night in a row my soul wakes in the middle of the night screaming there is similar devastation in pro russia separatists control the areas. they have been shooting recently everyone waits but nobody knows how the negotiations will end. the leaders of ukraine russia germany and france the so-called normandy format have repeatedly failed to find a political solution to the conflict. crain refuses russia's demand that it talk directly to pro moscow separatist leaders russia refuses to withdraw from crimea but she documented in 2014. and lists

a political deadlock on many levels remain the breakdown in the current ceasefire was fairly predictable because the sides were negotiating in good faith it's not negotiating in good faith in it probably in about october and they've reached the point where they were instead of trying to find common ground they were deliberately putting forth proposals that they knew would annoy the other side or that they knew would be nonstarters and once that starts to happen then you know that the breakdown of the ceasefire is only a small it's only a matter of time russia calls it a military exercise ukraine says it is a dangerous provocation after 7 years of failed peace negotiations the un says almost 3 and a half 1000000 people are an urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection in eastern ukraine. but al-jazeera. let's bring in our guests into the show we have joining us from moscow victor all over church a political analyst and leader of the center for actual politics in care of me when

esky associate professor of sociology at the national university of kiev more cademy and. these and a professor of international relations at the university of southeast norway welcome to the show if i could start with mikhail oh so why did the ceasefire collapse in eastern ukraine. well i think that that's a question perhaps too. to those that have been baited the gun tree in that program more a question of to the russians but the russians i've been provoking this the. various types of escalation the no negotiation cease fires non-theists fires last 7 years the reality is that ukraine in 2014 lost a grand total of 7 percent of the fairy story so that actually not very much 7 percent being lost including the crimea so in other words this is not exactly

a huge amount of territory but nevertheless it is a thorn in in ukraine tight cunt because territory has been lost and it's been lost due to aggression from the russian side so why are the why why are these continuing to to to to attack where the continuing to try to move forward after there have been i mean the clinton side and the new president the left he has actually come out but that is very simple but the going to fight is going to stop shooting unless being shot act so the provocations are governed not by directing the question is probably better to arrest. let's take a question then to big to moscow what prompted the russian military buildup that we suddenly the world was kind of surprised to see so many russian forces and tanks massing at the border victor well the situation in the southeastern ukraine has to be looked at from the point of view of rivalry in russian american relations

and we have seen that joseph biden and those close to him and his foreign policy. block war and stated on numerous occasions during the election campaign last year that if their candidates was going to win the american approach to russia would be much tougher than time suppose the time for the station approach that they're going to use our various new instruments to pressure russia on various fronts and after biden won the election last year and became a u.s. president he started to use a new study shows that to implement those. implemented that course towards russia sanctions have been expanded our rhetoric doors russia has been significantly hardened and also key has been has

also toughened its bullets its rhetoric towards moscow and towards elements sympathetic to russia within ukraine and has also taken action against more action against those elements for example the closing of several t.v. channels that were more sympathetic towards russia actions against the. official a politician sympathetic to moscow and some other politicians all right and so are moscow or is he is viewing this as a pressure. point and is. that one of your own on the specific level it's you as ok. to pressure the ukraine as a bargaining chip ok i can see there that the hi-lo is shaking his head i'll give you 15 seconds to come back in on some of that before we we move on to glenn ok i very quickly i mean at the end of the day you crane is not

a bargaining chip ukraine is a country and it's very nice that you know president putin and psychoanalysts can probably have a field day with russian president thinks in terms of you know ukraine or excuse me russian u.s. rivalry that's all very fine and dandy but it's not u.s. soldiers that are dying on the ground in front and ukrainian soldiers they are defending their own country and this is nothing to do in fact i mean except we're you know in strange minds with geopolitics this is everything to do with a a very real war that is happening in a very real country that has nothing to do with you know wouldn't it be a fairy tale it wouldn't be fair though to say that ukraine is caught in the geopolitics of relations between the u.s. and russia you do recognize that don't you of course is caught in not of course carter not in its current trap when i think that it's i mean it's the thing that i'm trying to get away from is the narrative that is being proposed by the kremlin

which basically says that crane doesn't matter as such it's simply a territory over over which supposedly the more us and russia are going to be ok and that that's just the wrong way if you mean i made your point maybe out of fairness let me give also 15 seconds to victor if he wants to pick up on anything before i move on to glenn. well there is no question that the situation that here developed in the u.k. in the best 70 years has been both unfortunate and very tragic. for our for the country and for boars those that live in on the territories controlled by kiev and in that area there is. controlled by the so-called people's republic in the southeast however ukraine is a matter of. of negotiation and of rivalry between them leisure powers between the us and i'm sure there's simply

a fact there are. yes there is there the simply a fact that key of course to take into account and thus take into account in the right policy deliberations and since we're talking about geopolitics between countries glenn i want to ask you to what extent is the whole issue of nato membership playing out here i think it was 3 days after joe biden took office there was some talk from the ukrainian side from the ukrainian president in fact about moving forward with the process of joining nato is this washes way of saying nato membership is a red line. now definitely i think if you're going to think we should all be empathetic about the difficult situation ukraine is in what has to be point out that this is that mostly about nato expansion and one also have to point out that it's important to note that ukraine actually began emboldened by the u.s. to mobilize its troops 2 wars to contact one was done by before russia then

responded by mobilizing its troops so russia has been very clear therefore that it would intervene if it's attacked and the reason yes nato it also it has a domestic component of course that is russia country really just stand by. political impossible if it's competitor it's in eastern ukraine are mowed down by decreeing an army but i merely this is about nato is is the geo political problem that was cost 7 years ago and nato expansionism into ukraine is deemed to be an existential threat to russia so this is the source of the conflict that is russia not nato refuses to halt its expansion and pursue neutral turn it is for countries along the russian borders while ukridge no role in russia said like a clear red line against further expansion which it intends to uphold but previously mentioned out there was no political solutions. but the minsk agreement was the mutual agreement for

a political settlement and this agreement did entails that. that government and she would negotiate directly with us or it isn't don't bust and pursue deep constitutional reforms to decentralize power and ground don't buy us a certain degree of autonomy the problem of course for ukraine is if they do it they're going to have a lot of internal divisions but ukrainian nationalist will not accept this and furthermore an autonomous don't bus could block nato expansion is not this is the main reason why both ukraine and the u.s. has been signaling that they do not intend to other don't like ations other to minsk agreement so i think all of this very much responds to the issue of nato expansion i can see me i think is shaking his head again let me give you a chance to come back. i'm quite frankly shocked by by by what was one minor reasonably good fuck you but look nato expansion into ukraine was monster an issue and was never even a possibility until 2014 when russia attacked grant when that is when i mean

the poll results are very very clear the political situation is very very clear nato was never ever on the on the agenda and its session to nato was never on the agenda until such time as russia decided to attack you print so to now say that somehow ukraine is at fault for going for actively pursuing major membership i mean what exactly would would would be the logical alternative when you are attacked when your when your territory is taken away by a country that supposedly was a guarantor of peace when ukraine gave up the nuclear weapons under the would have memorandum supposedly russia was supposed to guarantee ukraine's borders here russia's coming in and violating those borders and the only way that ukraine is going to going to be able to sit to defend itself is through nato but what is very

important is that in fact what i call this just recently said it is in fact just basically not true ukraine that not mobilize any troops and nor is it in any way shape or form possible 'd the ukraine would attack russia this is a narrative that is being propagated by the kremlin at this point that is completely untrue ukraine has a grand total army of 250000 troops russia has over a 1000000 people in under arms a 1000000 men a 1000000 troops there is no possible way that ukraine is going to attacking russia russia may be attacking you cringe and maybe taking more territory and that of course is in russia's interest because of this point the annexation of crimea is obviously very much untenable because of the problem is a problem of person such as that all right we're running out of time we do have all the points to cover let me give glenn i can see glenn wants to get in on this but in 15 seconds. yes well in 2008 nato said that the ukraine

would eventually become a member and this is been a thorn in the side ever since now my point is simply if if nato expansionism is really off the table why doesn't pay to go out and put this in writing and say to russia this would definitely calm down the conflict and it would open up for alternatives all right ok let me let me get 15 seconds back to you mikhail o. before we go once again to moscow with victor. look i'm going to be very brief at the end of the day there's a $100000.00 troops that are being pressed troops that are being massed on the borders of ukraine this in fact troops if they are going to be invading ukraine will not be in beating the past because. the area that is being turned meet it it is actually depressed reach there's very little interest in actually right however there is an interest obviously if you're interested in a very clear economic interest creating

a land bridge crimea and that means cutting off grain from the black sea ok that has that us interest in obviously that but it's nothing to do with nato or anything else that's simply russian expansionism in and you're ok you made your point let me ask victor what is the bottom line of this phase of the escalation do you think russia wants to to go to war with ukraine directly and a vertically and through into a war with ukraine. look despite kiev success theory shows ukraine is not to become a need to member and one of the uses for that is that if there's an active territorial dispute with one of its neighbors in this case with russia and to additionally need to does not accept new members that have active conflicts with their neighbors because in that case neither could be. forced to intervene there actually and that's not something that washington and so you think this support the idea that

and moscow one of that has collated or put its troops at the border to make this an issue to block ukraine ever from thinking or being able to join nato the thinking exactly one of the reasons for russia intervening in 2014 was there are after you know quite reach the former ukrainian president was deposed in the corps and they much more pro western government came to power in kiev moscow was. and that the new government there knew more progress than government could see need a membership and took action in part to prevent that mosque you see is need our expansion as a strategic threat and it took their act action to prevent that from need to from expanding to ukraine and we see that play out throughout the last 7 years so that the threat of need to expansion to ukraine that the reactor expansion is not has been sort of

moved back at the same time moscow is seeking to use its presence in ukraine as borders as a show of force as a shore of its force possible force projection and of its capabilities at the same time what my ukrainian tell you there's been seeing what he said about the land that be would be in the crimea and that the rest of russia that that is something that russia simply does not care for these sources to sustain even if russia would undertake that action there is the national economy would not be able to sustain those states or his nation of new territory is within the russia although that's not something that russia would seek to do our other than other than some are put in loyalist simply making a stark and allowed state or is let's not get bogged down too much into some

minutia of particular movements on the ground i want to try and maybe broaden the discussion out with the hi-lo if i may and ask about what this whole cycle means of the cycle of tension. and the escalation means for polarization within ukraine. well in fact one of the things that we've seen over the last 7 years is that unification. has not been a polarization and actually much more about unification i want to do want to make one more point in one last one about that they don't think are just so that we realize i mean it's not just a question of russia reacting to nato expansion ukraine is a sovereign country ukraine has been attacked 7 percent of its territory has been taken away he illegal it has a right to defend itself defending itself means through alliance this is a logical step this is not a question of you know someone is attacking russia no one's attacking russia russia

has attacked and ukraine is defending itself that in fact is a narrative that has. very much united be craning population well i think i'm citing a jump in there the move which the ukrainian president then ski made to close the t.v. station of the pro russian on iraq has he seen victor medved choke won't move. alienate at least those ethnic russians in ukraine or of ukraine is of ethnic russian origin that is a polarization thought not. first of all ethnic russians in ukraine according to the friend of the previous and the very reason now that the now that the crimea has been annexed and is not counted as part of ukraine now isn't the eastern region the boss of not the jenners part of ukraine so that we understand ethnic russians in ukraine make up less than 5 percent population so alienating a group of less than 5 percent of the population may be of course problematic from

the point of view of humanity humanitarian pressure but we need to understand 95 percent of the population is in support of ukrainian unity and sees russia as an aggressor with respect to the 3 channel yes that's true but in fact those 3 channels were outlets for basically money laundering of illegal activities by this like victim of the q who in fact was a basically a family member of what you would want be laundering money from illegal activities within ukraine including financing separateness on these being funny so i mean it's really problematic with respect to be rechanneled yes there is an issue those $3.00 channels were were were closed there were no protests. unlike various other things that have caused for the streets recently the training of those channels were in fact very very low they were broadcasting progress and propaganda and it wasn't being supported by by the by the ukrainian population so i mean at the end of the

day has created more of a ruckus in the kremlin than it has been given how i could see plan that i want to get in on this let me bring you in for some perspective i think we've got about a minute left. you know i would point out that if ukraine indeed was this united the selenski would not continue to live here the right there is the ukrainian nationalist because if you create would actually live up to its obligations under the minsk agreement and talk to. us you would very quickly see a green nationalist march through keep so there is a strong limited what can actually be done so also one should not confuse this there with ethnic russians are supposed to russian speakers as well and the overall . i wouldn't disagree that the do the conflicts obviously pushed greater unity in ukraine in terms of standing up for their sovereignty. but to suggest that suddenly everyone is on the same page and to russia. down to russian policies i definitely

would not agree with every poll indicates this is well that is something that everyone does not support you know and against russia ok i'm afraid we are out of time so we are going to end it then let's thank our guests very much victor levitch me hi-lo we need ski and glenn decent and thank you to 4 g. you can see the show again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com for further discussion head over to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story can also join the conversation on twitter our handle there is at a.j. inside story from me sam is a then and the whole team here for now but by. examining

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versus the markets with the turkish economy already on the brink will the president on the conventional economics take over yet from pos mozambique huge gas reserves big investors and an insurgency could do you write a little. counting the costs on al-jazeera. a 3 year investigation into the pro-gun lobby we've been employing in those meetings are going to really going to. reveal secrets do you want to put messaging out there will be people outraged you know. connection some don't want to expose nanny and legacy media will love the mass shooting. next week night al-jazeera investigations house is still a massacre on al-jazeera. al

jazeera. and. this is al-jazeera i'm dating you know obligato with a check on your world headlines russia's prison service says opposition leader alexina volley is being moved to hospital concerned about the volleys health has grown during the last few days the kremlin critic has been on a hunger strike for several weeks protesting against his jailing on what he says are political charges his allies have called for demonstrations on wednesday which the kremlin says will be considered illegal bernard smith has more from moscow.