severe sanctions on russia, if it's further invades ukraine. but i say again, russia can still choose diplomacy. it is not too late to deescalate him, returned to the negotiating table. last night, russia agree. the secretary state blanket and foreign minister labourer off should meet on foot on february 24th february 24th in europe. but if russia takes military action before that day, will be clear that they have slammed the door shut on diplomacy. they will have an ship, they will have chosen a war and they will pay a steep price for doing so. not only from the sanctions that we and our allies will impose on russia, but the more outraged the rest of the world will visit upon them. in old, for many issues, to divide our nation and our world, but standing up to russian aggression is not one of them. the american people, united europe is united. transatlantic communities,

united our political parties in this country are united the entire free world as united rush as a choice between war and all the suffering it will bring or diplomacy that will make a future safer for everyone. now i'm happy to take a few questions. so nancy from bloomberg. i think he's on the 3rd, do you think that it is last the president? you can leave the pain is an amazing it. that's a judgment for him to make and some nation as to whether or not i've spoken with zalinski a dozen times, maybe more, i don't know and down and it so in the pursuit of a diplomatic solution, it may not be fall and may be the wise choice as his decision. and do you have any indication about whether has an opinion has made a decision? whether it's mindy, do you feel confident that he's, that he's got have them made that decision already?

as of this moment, i'm convinced he's made the decision. we have reasonable there seems to be in a new spirit to do with dwayne united states in europe to do some say section, but hard is everyone on board with the exact same sanctions that you want to do. yes, um there will be some slight differences, but none they'll be more add ons than subtractions. and president putin is going to oversee some nuclear drills this weekend. how do you see that happening? what, what's your reaction lesser like? well, i don't think he is remotely contemplated nuclear using nuclear weapons, but i do think it so. i think he is um, focused on trying to convince the world that he has the ability to change the dynamics in europe in

a way that he can not. but i, i don't to how much of it is a cover for just say we're just doing exercises. and there's more than that. i just can't, it's hard to read his mind the, the going to me where, where are you are convinced that president putin is going to invade ukraine? is that what you just said? yes. so is diplomacy off the table that no, all actually does. diplomacy is always a possibility. what reason do you have to believe he's considering that option at all significant challenges capability. thank you. thank you. so we've just been listening to you as president joe biden, speaking about the escalation in the eastern ukraine. he said that russian fighters

are attempting to provoke fighters in the don bass. president rejected regular preaching claim. that key is deliberately stoking tensions in the region. of course, government fight government backed fighters and russian backs up to been blaming each other for that recent rise intentions. you french, the evacuation of civilians to russia as part of attempts to fabricate a full swag operation and all that being a pretext for military action. but he also said the american troops would not be sent to fight in ukraine, but that washington would strengthen ukraine's defense capability. allan fisher joined us lives now from washington. and i'm president biden. seemed to say that the decision to invade has now been made by president person. it's a significant departure, certainly for the last 72 hours or so. those at the white house were saying that he

didn't believe that president putin had made the final decision. so that is quite a leap for joe biden to see that quite what he's be saying that on. we wouldn't be sure that perhaps there's some sort of intelligence report perhaps because of all his time involved in foreign affairs. he thinks it's just a gut decision that vladimir putin is made. of course that is to be this meeting between sergey laval and antony blinkin. who is the secretary of state on the 24th, somewhere in europe. i asked if the decision has been made to invade. if that meeting then is irrelevant, joe biden said no, it until he actually does it, then there's always the chance for diplomacy. but clearly, joe biden sees the possibility of still being able to negotiate the way out of this and this crisis. but certainly what we had from him in the initial stages is very much what we've had from the white house over the last few weeks. that the believe that the russians are setting up a pretence to invade,

saying that there's even the possibility the russians are seeing of ukrainian visual teeth described as crazy given the, the, the size of the russian forces in the americans assessment is gathered on the border of ukraine, at the moment you said it was simply wouldn't make any sense. and suggesting that this false flag would be used for an invasion to justify, to the people of russia why vladimir putin has decided to move in. but if he did the he would meet a united opposition in the free world, particularly with sanctions to be imposed on rush. at the moment, russian troops crossed the border and we had, during the white house briefing, the normal daily briefing just an hour or so ago that the americans believed that those sanctions could cripple the russian economy, undo significant damage to them and believe that that me detail vladimir putin, but certainly it's a, it's a move from from joe biden to say that he believes that the decision has already

been made. we have heard consistently from the russians, but they have no intentions have been beating. this is war games that they are staging on the border of that there's no intention of going into your cream. they believe they're being provoked by the united states, by nato, and by the ukrainians. joe biden says that is not the case, but he believes the decision has not been made. and of course, when he was asked about what it was based on, he said us intelligence obviously very vague on that. but we have seen this, these warnings of an eminent russian invasion repeated over the past couple of weeks . all seems to be part of what people are saying is, is the strategy, this information warfare to exert pressure on russia? it look for ordinary people. it's very difficult to decide what is right and what is wrong here, because people will point to the fact that the russians have employed this playbook before when they see when they say there have been aggressions against russian

people. and then that has led them to invade it. and we saw that in places like georgia, where there had been what people would regard this as staged events in more school to facilitate the invasion of chechnya. and then you talk about how the u. s. intelligence is giving them this information. but you go back to the gulf of tonkin during the vietnam war. you go back to the story circulated by us intelligence that babies were being ripped out of incubators. by saddam's forces in kuwait, you go back to weapons of mass destruction and then you think hold on a 2nd. is this this information by the americans? or is it simply that they don't have the intelligence and are filling in the gaps with things that they think are true? so if you're stuck in the middle, trying to decipher all of this, you really have no idea what is going on. it's interesting that you cleanings have said that they don't believe that threat. the question of course,

came up about president lindsley. he's due to go to the the munich security conference over the next 2448 hours. joe biden was asked, does he think that's a good idea? he has given what has become the party line up to the white house? look, that's a decision for him to make, but then he added, he didn't think it would be a good idea given the threat to his country at the moment. certainly, joe biden believes this threat is real, that the russians have gathered hundreds of thousands of troops on the border. and we've had from us intelligence sources in the last 24 hours that the believe that the russians are 60 percent ready to invade. and they have everything that they need and it could happen in the coming days. but joe biden is hoping that by presenting a united front from the g 7 from the european union with canada, united kingdom and nato allies, and warning that there will be huge consequences economically for russia. that might be just enough to give larger me put in

a moment of pause if joe biden is correct and that decision has already been made. and he said that diplomacy is still attract that they would be pursuing until the actual moment of invasion didn't in there. is going to be this meeting between actually say, and sampling can, and the russian form is the 2nd level later on in the week it's, it's difficult, i suppose, to gauge what the prospect for that might be in light of this sort of continued deadlock. well, of course he put a very important caveat on that, and that is that meeting, we'll go ahead unless the russians invade and then not meeting isn't going to go ahead. joe biden has tried to rally allies, i and others at to the cause. here he's been involved in numerous conversations. we've seen the german chancellor here. we've seen the katara emir here talking about what would happen if the russians did invade. and then they responded by

cutting off a power supplies to, to europe, and what the united states and its allies could do to ease the pressure on europe. he has had numerous video calls. he again, over the next few days is going to have a conversation with g 7 leaders. he, this is a holiday weekend here in the united states, but he is going to stay at the white house pap setting an example for president leslie to stay close to where the action is and where he can make decisions. of course, he could do that can david on his place and in delaware, but he staying here at the white house this weekend. clearly he sees this as an important 72 hours in, in what happens in the ukraine in ukraine. and he believes that he has a mast enough at economic and political support to be a deterrence to russia. but of course, the decision finally will be made by vladimir putin who's meant to be overseeing

war games this weekend. the way on the american side is that these war games develop to something more and become an actual invasion or ukraine targeting keys in the initial stages. as he pointed out, a city of $2800000.00 and a concern for the humanitarian consequences that any of the vision would bring. not just to ukraine, but to neighboring countries such as poland. all right, thank you very much from washington. alan fisher. thank you. alan let's bring you more what's been happening inside ukraine. separate us leaders in the eastern part of the country, save that. civilians will be moved to russia with the approval of the kremlin, after an escalation and fighting between government forces and russian by rebels on friday siren sounded in the east of the country urging people to seat cover. while in the past few minutes, rushes into fax news agency reported an explosion on a gas pipeline near la hans charles stratford. isn't it?

no the seal of car, in its se in ukraine, ah. alarm in the streets of russian back cities control the mask siren sounded off to the leader of the self declared republic. announced the mass evacuation of civilians by a demo sooners, new or near with as of today, february the 18th to the one mass centralized evacuation of the population to the russian federation has been organized. what should it, women, children, and the elderly are to be evacuated. first over, children gathered at evacuation points. lines of cars began heading towards the russian border. sauces internet's told al jazeera bus drivers were ordered to stay and help the evacuation. ukraine and its western backers have a days been saying that russia plans are so called false flag incident,

which could give moscow all the separatists. it supports a pretext to attack. russia calls that a lie. but hours later, russian media said this was a car, bombings and exc no casualties were reported. the target was said to be a top security official. when the breakaway region, this is said to show a center where men can sign up to join the separatist forces. soon after the announcement by pushing the leader of the other russian back self declared republic, blue guns who followed suit me and said, all those who can carry a weapon should be prepared to fight news. that is the one that i call on civilians who are not mobilized or involved in the maintenance of infrastructure to leave for russia as soon as possible. the announcement came after what the ukrainian government and the organization for security and cooperation in europe, the o se, se, some of the worst shilling by the russian bank, separatists and years. the separatists accused the ukrainian army of the same,

ukraine's top military commanders said ukraine had no intention of attacking the separatist held territory. quarter of 2 do. i reiterate that the military and political leadership of he craned don't plan and not conducting offensive operations in the east. the only option of the occupation of the people in territory that is acceptable to us is the political and diplomatic one with a villages close to where the ukrainian government is in control was surprised and scared by the news near the call. when you socially, we haven't heard the news about the evacuation on the other side. i only heard about the kindergarten being shelled yesterday, and they said that it was a provocation. there has to be an investigation needed with the cfo to the we of course we were worried. we have children and grandchildren. we just want to have otherwise we will have to leave this area. it must stop. we have lived through this horror for years. the mirror and the announcement by the leadership of both the self declared donnette scandal gunk people's republic of a mass evacuation on the separatists control side of the front line has huge

implications. but essentially, hundreds of thousands of people living in areas like these in the ukraine in government control territory. despite russia repeatedly saying it has no intention of an invasion or military escalation against ukraine. those words becoming increasingly hard to believe. all stratford al jazeera novice salva eastern, just heard the u. s. president leads that russia's lead a has now made the decision to invade an attack ukraine. first regiment, bruce will be overseeing new drills on saturday, involving strategic nuclear forces and the launch of ballistic and cruise missiles . following talks with the battery, shanita preaching did emphasize that these exercises are defensive and not intended as a threat of invasion. he would just go, what of can you look at today's talks? we also discuss strengthening our joint defense space of russia and bella rows. we agreed again to take collective mrs to strength and security of l. countries in the

face of the growing military activity of nato countries near the borders of our status. we also focus on the joint military exercises which will continue and bellows until the 20th of february. i should say that these exercises of totally defense of nature and do not threaten any one whatever the matic efforts are also continuing to avoid a conflict at a security summit in germany. that's where the focus is now with un factory general warning. russia that it would be preaching international law. if it invades out there is diplomatic, added to james bay's reports for munich. the un secretary general has for weeks said he thinks war can be avoided. but his warnings about the situation are getting more dire. oh. with a concentration of rush and forces that on the ukraine, i am deeply concerned about height, intentions and increased speculation about a military conflict in europe. i still sing it will not happen. but if it

did, it would be catastrophic. sitting with the german foreign minister, hannah, lena bab, okay. the u. s. secretary of state antony blinking was again asked about the prospect of war. the differences have to resolve through dialogue through diplomacy . ah, we are deeply concerned that that is not the path, it rushes embarked on the mare t vitaly, cliff covey was in the audience. we are ready to fight. we're ready to defend our families, our faith, our cities, our citizens. we need support a point clearly aimed at germany, which has not been supplying weapons to ukraine. so the position, the foreign minister that said was based on her country's history, our responsibility after the 2nd world war was that never again from germany, there will be wall and never again, there will be genocide. the discussion was moderated by the incoming chairman of

the munich security conference, or christoph hoisin is his country's former ambassador to the un and was chancellor merkel foreign policy advisor. go back ambassador. the big question, is that going to be a war? and i think nobody knows, i don't know if putting himself knows he's playing, he's playing this game. see is one day saying that now we want to we want to go into negotiations. he says they were, it's never any, never had any intentions. and then you are following right now that when you look at the don bus, you'll see that the number of cease fire violations is skyrocketing on saturday. here in munich, the british prime minister flies in the us vice president and the ukranian president supposed to speak, and they'll be a meeting of the g 7 foreign ministers. on this growing crisis. james base al

jazeera munich. well, i spoke to yup. to hope scheffer for mineta sector general, and he says that we difficult now for president putin to draw back. well, it seems sir, that, that they are trying now to find them. perhaps they have found the pretext to launch and a form of military action in the dawn bus, which is one of the probable scenarios of cause, rather cynical that you ask people to leave for russia because ukraine is, is attacking with 18090000 russian soldiers around ukraine. it's cynical i repeat, but i do see it as the pretext for potential further action. i'm afraid. i think we should also look at it through the side from a bloody me to put in. he is confronted with unprecedented solidarity within nato. solidarity within the european union and my opinion is that he might not have

expected that. and we saw it again in munich, the german foreign minister, the united states, secretary of state. so i think, i think he has not made up his mind yet a but he is so high up in the tree that climbing down without loss of face is almost impossible. and that is the reason that i think it is highly probable. now that some form of action will follow soon, ah, i'll fix african countries will be given the technology to produce their own coven vaccines, and aim to protect more people. a deal announced a summit between the european african unions, comes after. wealthy countries have been accused of keeping most of the dos as embark reports now from brussels. anger over vaccine inequality between europe and

africa. cast a long shadow over this landmark summit from the offset less than 12 percent of africans, a double vaccinated compared to 71 percent of europeans. but it's hope to new agreement announced on friday to ship technology needed to produce ammo and aid. jobs in africa will help we dress the balance to day. i'm delighted to announce the 1st 6 african countries that would receive technology from the have to produce their own m r n a vaccines, egypt, kenya, nigeria, senegal, south africa, and tunisia. dublin joe will work with the companies and the government in each country to develop a roadmap for training and production. the announcements been largely welcomed, but simmering in the background and ongoing dispute between a you and e, you leaders over vaccine, intellectual property rights. many african leaders believe that if you are a piece serious about eradicating covey. 19 or indeed,

getting rid of other serious illnesses than powerful pharmaceutical companies, should share their research, allowing african scientists to make vaccines from scratch in africa for africans. that's the goal, said the french president, without making any firm commitment to bhaskar ski. i think that the objective we should pursue, that intellectual property should never be a barrier to the production and dissemination of vaccines wherever they're needed. that is the objective, the subject, african, any you leaders have described the summit as a fresh start with the president of senegal mackey sol urging europe to shed colonial era prejudices and to engage with a new dynamic continent. the use responded with an economic new deal for africa in the form of a 170000000000 dollar array of massive infrastructure plans to compete with china's belt and road initiative. what this means for africa is a new recommitment. and in you any section,

all your can capture your coupons to be able to drive africa was it translation. but also looks at our transformation also look at looking at energy and green and also looking at in the environment and also things around a ricardo. so it's a big, big package that energy is going to be the am a big player in the, all of this new relationship or no being fair. 155 countries and a combined population of 1300000 people. the african union's long being accused of lacking unity of doing deals with foreign powers separately and often in competition with one another. in many ways, the pandemic focus the african unions demands to be treated as equals reframe in the continent as a place where wealthy western countries are ready to heavily invest. people go out

to 0 brussels to sac, but pay as chief executive officer of the garvey alliance. has more needs to be done tonight, show vaccines, reach developing countries. what we don't know is when the next new variance will occur, there's been a new variance out every 4 months during the last couple of years. and whether this new variant would be worse than the current variant or would be better in terms of the ability to cause disease. so at the moment we have to be prepared for any eventually. and in the meantime, the critical issue is getting primary doses into those at risk. everywhere on the world, 2021 was a very difficult year for us. there were many barriers in the way that was vaccine nationalism. there was the ability to raise money. there were export bands, but despite all. busy of that, we were able to get over a 1000000000 doses into a lower income country. so today, lower income countries have

a coverage rate of around 33 percent fully vaccinated. 45 percent single dose, but that's well below the global number of over 60 percent. having receive some doses and in high income countries, the numbers even being significantly higher than that. so we need to continue to work, particularly in the lowest income countries where coverage remains very low. when the stories are falling storm eunice is killed at least 8 people in the u. k. belgium island in the netherlands. england's born much of the problem that was parts of the roof of london. oh to rena ripped off and record wind speeds recorded for a challenge, reports from london. it was billed as perhaps the case, worst storm in 30 years, with winds expected a 140 kilometers an hour. but that to me, a breeze, compared to what storm eunice actually delivered. a gust on the olive white top to 196 kilometers an hour and has provision the become the u. k. strongest recorded

wind for all eunice's theory, though the damage could have been a whole lot worse. i mean, if, as i say the search had coincided with the winds and the high tide, we could have seen some devastation, hence the severe flood warnings and some evacuation. so i'm really happy that those things have gone out of sync, but it was great. everyone was prepared and the public listed and people kept himself safe. units have killed and injured people. low fatalities from falling trees have been confirmed in the u. k. ireland and the netherlands, but in most places the damage has been to property rather than life. now this rather sorry side is london o 2 arena, formerly known as the millennium dime. it's a huge right concept and exhibition space in london. se featured in james bond films and the like. but as you can see, storm eunice has shredded a huge great hole in its fabric skin. really rip it apart. it's going to be some effort to fix that one. i think. then there was the disruption travelers anxiously

watching information boards as train off, the train was camped. there was gridlock on many roads. this taylor is caused by the closure of the damp a bridge and parts of london and made away $400.00 plus flights with rounded case. now every disaster needs the hero and come with the our big jets tv. the ation enthusiasts live web stream isn't used to large audiences, but more than 200000 locked down as host jerry dies, live commentary went viral, carry on planes as they struggled to land at heathrow to be towed to town. yeah, the big swing eunice has moved fast, sweeping across the u. k. and ireland in less than a day now, the rest of northern europe is taking its turn,

rory talents. how does era london out? the developments in molly, the ruling military general, told france to withdraw their forces from the country without delay. comes out after the french formulas to said molly's fight against groups linked to al kinder, an ice hill is now their own problem present. emanuel mac con confirm plans for the role of troops from molly after a 9 year mission. they said it would take 4 to 6 months. again, they do off of the molly and army has been strengthened reorganized. the problem now is to know whether it gets its orders from the printer and if it's laying off the fight against terrorism, it's molly and problem. it is no longer a french problem. the family of a black american man shot dead by white police officer, reacted angrily to a jail sentence shorter than prosecute. is it asked for kim potter killed 20 year old dante right in april. last year. she says she mistook her gun for taser. a court handed her to be a jell time for manslaughter. shorter than the 70 is recommended by the minnesota

state guidelines. the former police officer. apologize to the family. i am so sorry that i bought the death of your son, father, brother, uncle, crown son. if you and the rest of your family to your home stand mother's. oh, oh, oh, want to bring you the main stories this out now and us president joe biden has said he is convinced the russian president has decided to invade ukraine. the us now says up to 190000 russian soldiers are stationed near the ukrainian border. but joe biden insist there's still room for de.