hobble around $450.00 positive tests for the virus, including athletes were forced to withdraw from competition. many will be able to end their time under strict camera control. before from here the winter olympics had to non co, chino in italy haven't for use clearly so katrina, you, i'll to 0 beijing. ah, this is out there are these you top stories from says the us and russian presidents have agreed in principle to hold a summit over ukraine. the potential breakthrough comes as fighting increases in easton, ukraine, and russian troops are reportedly moving on the border. i just came back from unit with the vice president, she let our delegation there to make sure that we are in lock step with allies and partners on everything that we're going to do both to see if we can still prevent present food from carrying forth. his decision, and if not,

making sure that we're fully coordinated with all his partners on the response, they reiterated that massive consequences will follow if, if president putin carried forth with the, the aggression passengers been found alive on board a fairy that's been on. finally, the greek island of co foods and friday, another man found dead. well, 10 people are still missing. will plane has crashed in north west iran killing at least 3 people, including its 2 pilots stay tv, says the plane hit the ground near a school in the city of to breeze. the other person killed was a resident in the neighbourhood. australia is open as food is to fully vaccinated tourists off to nearly 2 years of being closed off to the world. tough board emissions, even restricted australians from returning home and leaving beneath of arrest. the dozens of people in canada's capital is 3 weeks of disruptive. protests ended thousands of truck drivers and their support is located central to a easing emergency palace police clay the convoy of trunks and protest,

stalls intense. the protest began in response to coven 19 vaccine mandates. like rain in argentina is giving some hope to firefighters has been battling for weeks to contain wildfires. through 10 percent, the land and korean says province in the northeast, the fire is also threatening wildlife. across argentina's largest whitland, the dominican republic had started building a wall covering nary nearly half its border with haiti. president louise of been not their hopes. it will stop illegal migration as well as drugs and weapons smuggling. about half a 1000000 haitians in the dominican republic, many more often cross the border for work. i mean not an estimate. the 1st phase of the war should be completed within 9 months. okay. as you headlines coming up next inside story, stay with us. teaching in you can watch to see english streaming

light teaching channels plus thousands of off programs. award winning documentaries and debt. these reports subscribed to you. cheese dot com, forward slash al jazeera english. they were supposed to stop conflict in eastern ukraine, but the minsk agreements have been repeatedly violated since 2015 with the threat of a russian invasion in the accord still provide a path to peace. this is inside story. ah hello and welcome to the program. i'm how much of jerome political leaders and diplomats say they're working hard to prevent a russian invasion of ukraine. the so called misc agreements keep coming up in their discussions. they were signed in belarus to try and secure

a ceasefire between ukrainian government forces and russian backed separatists in eastern ukraine. the 1st version and 2014 failed to take hold. so a 2nd, a court called minsk, too, was signed the following year. but both sides accused each other of breaking the agreement. at least 14000 people had been killed in fighting during the past 8 years. monitors from the organization for security and cooperation in europe or o s. c, e have reported hundreds of cease fire violations a day. despite this many diplomats insist the minsk agreements are the only way forward. secure peace. the men's agreements remained the only framework endorsed by this council and resolution 2020 at 220. 2 for a negotiated peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern ukraine, gave me phony. mister flushing kiss doesn't comply with the minsk agreements, refuses to establish a direct dialogue with the nets. and le hands undermines the agreements to

introduce changes in the constitution and exclusive statute of dumbass local elections. and the amnesty all key issues of the minsk agreements show them was law regarding the possible recognition of the so called don yeske. and the hans people's republics of the russian duma. i would like to remind once again of the ukrainian position which has never changed. if recognition is approved, russia will exit the means, ke agreements defacto. and according to the laura as well, with all the consequences to come to the men's 2 agreement contains 13 points. 9 are designed to end the armed conflict and ukraine, while the other for address the political impasse between kev and the pro russia rebels. the agreement calls for the removal of heavy weapons hostage exchanges release of political prisoners and the pull out of all foreign armed groups. it also sets a roadmap for political dialogue. this includes giving the donnette scandal hands

regions. some devolved powers and holding elections there. but russia once special status for the regions before returning the border to calves control. russia maintains it was only a facilitator and not part of the conflict inside ukraine. so it is not bound by the terms of the agreement. ah. all right, let's bring in our guests in moscow. andre cartoon off director general of the russian international affairs council in give me hi lo, winette ski associate professor of sociology at national university of keg. he have more he law academy in istanbul. matthew brides, a senior fellow at the atlanta council and former national security council official at the white house. a warm welcome to you all and thanks so much for joining us today on inside story. me. hi lo, let me start with you. why haven't the minsk agreements worked and what are the

problems inherent in them? well, there is one very simple thing that is in the midst agreements that was agreed to in the 1st minute. second meant that russian troops must be raining soil, simple as that until such time as russian troops have not left the gradient soil, there is very little to talk about with respect to mint. there's a requirement for a local election. there's a requirement for changing the constitution better, but none of that can be done until such time as that territory is occupied by russian forces. and today to talk about men's, cuz quite frankly, completely ludicrous. because we have almost $200000.00 troops on our borders expected to be invading the rest of ukraine anytime soon. so i mean quite frankly mens is well effectively dead and and it was put, it was basically killed by the kremlin bite. not when, when basically well decided to ignore the basics of the the agreement and that was

due to withdraw russian troops. andre, bye, by most accounts. the minsk agreements essentially were dead on arrival. they have not worked from your perspective, can they be reworked? can they be modified in a way that the process would work going forward? and if so, how? well, i think that turning earliest equally we should probably focus on the so called military package. within the misc agreements. wish implies the 1st 3 points of the agreements signed the 7 years ago, festivals stable and de verifiable cease fire. a 2nd was the roll of heavy weapons . and 2 of the strengthen oil. c, monitor emissions in don't boss. you fair able to comply with the 1st 3 points of the miss grims that would already be event a significant progress. later on,

we can move her to the political agenda, reach, she will probably have to be modified. oh, or are dated. but of course, that would require a consent of all those who signs in his agreements. matthew, there are a lot of diplomats right now that are saying the minsk agreements are really the only path forward when it comes to trying to de escalate this crisis. when it comes to the united states, they've had very little involvement in this process. how much can the us get involved now? will probably can't get involved directly in the men's group negotiations because at least russia, france, and germany who are the ones that kind of, you know, where the, where the leaders along with ukraine or the participants. they don't want us to participate. i think ukraine would love the u. s. to be involved in the negotiations, but there's not a direct role for the united states. but of course, there's a huge indirect role for the united states. first and foremost by rallying nato and

maintaining a solidarity right now in an attempt to deter further russian use of military force against ukraine. and it's important to know that this threat by russia to use force is negotiating tactic. it may be or a genuine threat to re invade ukraine as well. but it's negotiate. it's a piece of negotiating, leverage or very important piece. the goal, however, of russia i think, is not really to get to minsk agreements finalized. but of course, russia's objectives, as articulated by president putin are much broader than the men's agreement. and they all have to do with pushing back nato into its pre, in 1997 borders and carlo it looked earlier like you wanted to jump in. i'm going to let you do that, but i also want to ask you, are officials in kiev worried that the west is going to try to use this russian threat to strong arm ukraine into accepting moscow's version of the men sc agreements? ok, well i want to say 3 things that i'm going to be very brief about. first of all, people in ukraine are an official than ukraine are worried about being invaded the

west at the moment, helping us. and we are very grateful for the military, economic and political aid, diplomatic aid that is being provided. quite frankly, one of the reasons that we can, has not invaded the country on mass yet has to do with the fact that there is western support. so quite frankly, we're not concerned about the west somehow leaving a dr. agreement at the end of the day, everybody's working towards avoiding a further invasion. my. the other thing that i wanted to do, my american colleagues, frankly, the goal is to try to stop nato with better. what you know, made it very clear is what you want. the whole nato thing is, quite frankly, just i mean, it's a diversion at the end of the day. what you want to control ukraine, put, you wants to re, re establish greater russia. he is the gatherer of the russian land. this is what

he's about. and ukraine is something that is an absolute requirement to trasky a 100 years ago said russia cannot exist without you. great. and that is something that is continue to be something that is in the russian mind and the rational political agenda for the last 30 years. and quite frankly, today is for now is the time according to if we can do try to make that dream a reality. finally, with respect to the misc agreements, we need to understand that these agreements refined when working was holding a gun. ukraine head. the 1st agreement was signed after he bar after he was bombarding where you both. the 2nd agreement was signed after there was, there were russian troops on the ground in ukraine, in a place called the ball. in both cases, the goal was to create a cease fire that the fire had basically plus or minus of health for the last 5 or 6 years. there's been a line of contact and that's why i contacted i had minimal firing across,

shooting on either side during the last day. we have over 100 c fire violations. and those, these fire violations of all come from the russian by the end of the day, ukraine's demand and very simple russian get out of our territory. matthew, you were reacting there to some of what we jaila was saying. i'm going to let you jump in. yeah, no, i totally agree. i agree with everything that we highly said and you know, of course ukraine is the immediate, huge focus that we put in trying to do. but there is this broader geo strategic objective as well when, who talks about the desire for a whole new european security architecture, which, which i think is going to end up being a proposal, the dead on arrival. but as far as the bolts of it goes, that's a very important example. immediately after means to assign russians mounted a major assault on the baltimore in total violation of the 1st aspect of the minstrel. second, minsk agreement, which was the cease fire,

as well as the 1st minister, which was a cease fire. so from the beginning, russia has not observed them in sc agreements. and the contrary is highly said, it has kept its military forces in ukraine, honesty, or even if it denies that there, there it has allowed the illegal arm formations of the, of the don't ask, are region to remain in place. those were supposed to be disbanded, and har from moving heavy military equipment out of don bos, russia has matched up to 190000 troops with heavy equipment near the border. so when russia demands that ukraine comes into compliance with uminski agreements, well a, it's not in compliance and be if it's threat to use military force is supposedly to bring ukraine into compliance. well, then it's doesn't make any sense that russia still claims not to be a party to those agreements or the conference. why would you threaten to invade a country to enforce an agreement that you claim you're not a party of andre? earlier this month,

there were talks between ukrainian and russian officials in the normandy format, but they really failed to make a breakthrough correct. those are right. that's right. there was disappoint. but this breath by mr. carr, who is a special envoy of president putin here, argued that you've failed to get any flexibility on the premium side in terms of the compliance with agreements. and do you think that there will be further talks going forward? well, i think the eve, for indeed her, the diplomatic bertha is something that they would prefer in the clarendon. this is the only way to go. it seems delta, my co panelists are from the united states and ukraine are know, much better than i do. what we can really wants and what he is up to. unfortunately, i don't have such great conflicts into clarendon to make sure that the invasion is

eminent and that is likely to happen anytime soon. however, i would suggest that it's not logical for hootin to launch a major military operation in ukraine. it's a lot that actually can lose, or it's not much that russia can gain. i think it's in the interests of the camden to preserve the passion ukraine, and to insist on the full compliance of the music agreements as they were signed 7 years ago. i think that this is their ultimate goal because or, or the, our compliance with uminski agreements, ultimately a might or center and all stickle ah, may be a strategic obstacle or no, you can't join in the nato alliance. and lisa cy, const, i think that this is the goal that bruton is trying to accomplish. if he is able to prevent you clean, joining nato through other means they're probably, he will demonstrate more flexibility on the implications of the means. could remus

mikaela? i can see that you want to jump in before you do. i just also want to ask you, do you think that there are going to be more normandy format talks? can we forward? and even if there were some type of agreement or that were reached, do you think that president lensky would actually be able to push this kind of deal through parliament in ukraine? look, i want to react 1st of all, what? like my colleague, my recent colleagues said, very simple, we don't have information as to whether or not there will be any minute invasion. all we know is there a 190000 troops on our borders and those 190000 groups are not exactly depends. most of them are what's called italian tactical groups. those are attack forces. first of all, secondly, i read the kremlin website. i listen to what it says and put in specifically has said and the website, if you want to in july published his musings on the history of ukraine and russia

and how we are supposed to be one people is come up many, many times and said that he does not recognize the grains right to exist as a separate country. i am a ukrainian, i would like to exist. i believe that it leaves us very little room for negotiation when someone is invading you and says that you have no right to exist. and you are defending yourself and you are saying i have a right. what is there to negotiate about? it's very much it to be or not to be the type of scenario. there's very little to negotiate now. yes, we are of course, interested in having a normal the format or us for my president. the last he has said that he would be very happy to bring in president aragon from from turkey into the, into the situation he has stated yesterday. and you know, that he would love to meet with him is not interested in meeting with him, is interested in destroying at the end of the day. ukrainians are preparing to

defend themselves. there's very little to talk about at that point when you are at the, at gunpoint. that is the reality at the moment you can, you is, and i will not say evacuating, but certainly very, very concerned, particularly after president biden statement of the fact that you have already made his decision. we've seen maps, we are seen troops trip build ups, and we have to what president would you have to say? and unfortunately, none of that makes us particularly confidence in the prospects for peace. matthew, what do you think you think there's going to be more of these normandy format talks going forward and even if there are, and even if there is some type of agreement that has reached, do you think that it will hold? well, i don't anticipate enormity format discussion until the current extreme high level of tension decreases. and you know what, what we're seeing right now in eastern ukraine is exactly what we saw in georgia in august 2008. when there are supposedly,

were peacekeepers on the ground from russia, but there were separatists who opened fire on georgian military positions. this is happening in eastern ukraine as well. right now. ukrainian leadership is withholding counter strikes the georgia government did for awhile, but then it did retaliate and that prompted a full scale russian invasion of georgia. so i think this is exactly what president putin is trying to provoke. again, he's talked about a military technological response. if his demands are not met, but not an invasion. so what he's going to do is say, well the ukrainians thought back we didn't invade, we were defending that we were defending against their assault on the shepherdess troops. so until that clears until that crisis moment clears, it's an academic exercise to talk about more normandy format discussions. and again, russia claims it's not a party to minsk agreements. then why in the world would it's threaten and it's threatening invasion and to kill tens of thousands of people. civilians,

for the implementation of an obscure agreement to which acquainted is not a party. it just the story does not hold together, but before we can get back to normandy, got to get past this moment of high military tension. and matthew, i guess one of the concerns would be that president putin is using the men sc agreements as a political tool. this must be something that western countries are very worried about, right. i hope they are. i mean, you, in a lot of discussions i listen to in the been involved with, i hear your opinions told try to hold ukraine, speak to the fire and say, you know, if, if you don't implement the mask agreements then, well, then suggesting perhaps russia has a justification to try to force implementation and that that's a total red herring. moscow does not care about the minsk agreement. so i hope i hope that throughout the nato alliance, european leaders do recognize mohammed just what you said. that the minister agreement really, again, to focus on it now is a red herring. what russia is about now is yes is behind the. ready said

destabilizing ukraine, preventing ukraine from ever joining nato. and i stand by what i said before. also relocating the post cold war security framework to which russia agreed. by the way, it agreed in 1994. in the budapest memorandum to support ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty ukraine gave up it's nuclear weapons. ukraine lived up to its end of the bargain. russia has violated as deeply as you could. andre, the fact that the men's agreements are not legally binding. how much does that complicate this all? well, i think that it might open where it is and use of for the rational id is shipper. in don barza, for instance, a given the current escalation, or i'd love to exclude a diplomatic reza, recognition of the break of it, of objects or by russia. and that would be, of course, a game changer that would indeed make this situation is to can somewhat similar to what happened in georgia tech and the $2.00 oh $8.00. and then i think are the main

screen agreements will collapse. ah, i don't think that the probability is very high, but i do not exclude that. because in my view, the state duma would have never advanced such an idea if they had not received a nod from the cabinet. so right now, i think this is probably more likely challenger to the music agreements than an invasion of russia across the board with you in at least that's how i see the situation to day. and for me are the most immediate task is to preserve the means, could get a months to award a diplomatic or a combination of the brake republics. and to get back to the negotiating table. i don't think that we have other floor level options to reach any progress in de escalate of the situation and the halo. i'm curious to get your perspective on one

thing and most people say that the minsk agreements have essentially been a failure from the outset. have there been any successes that have come from them? well look, there was an attempt to, to push to parliament, some changes to, to, to the grain constitution. those failed. but we do have one of the requirements, the political requirements, the minister agreement was to provide in parliament a law special law that provided more economy for those areas that are currently occupied. should one of the, one of the presumption of that law for it to go go forward, was for the occupation to end. in other words, russian troops leave and then these areas become integrated into the rest of the ukraine as economists, regions with their own police forces with their own judiciary. in other words, significant amounts of autonomy. those steps were made. however,

at the end of the day, the military requirements of a full fire and withdrawal of russia troops has never happened. and as a matter of fact, what we're seeing now is a further escalation and further advancement of rush and forces onto granger authorial integrity. i do want to say that, you know, we're all hoping for peace. we're all hoping for some sort of a resolution to this. but at the end of the day, when president biden comes out and says that the decision has been made and he has made his decision in the u. s. best that the decision to move in by russian forces has been made. that makes it very, very difficult to even dream about any kind of a peaceful solution. at the moment we're looking for de escalation, mikaela, you mention the hope for a peaceful solution. if there is a peaceful resolution to all that's going on right now, would there be any appetite in ukraine for uminski base settlement? look, i'm not sure that it needs to be mid space. it could be any other other city if you

like, but the reality is that graham are interested in a settlement. having said that, we are interested in also de escalation on our borders. we are not interested in having russian cruise on our borders constantly. secondly, the dunbar crisis and the fact that there is an occupation in eastern grades should not be separated from the fact that there is an illegal annexation of crimea. and crimea has officially been now supposedly transferred to the russian federation. well, that's problematic as well. so russia has taken over 7 percent of our territory and continues to be threatening to take more. so looking at peaceful solutions, of course. but at the end of the day, i think ukrainians understand today that the existential threats that russia presents to ukraine is long term. and we will have to deal with that long term. it's not something that's going to go away tomorrow for as long as the pushing

regime remains in the grammar. all right, well, we have run out of time, so we're going to have to leave our conversation there. thank you so much. all of our guests. andre cartoon of me. hi lo, the net sky and matthew bryce and thank you to 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. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. we can also join the conversation on twitter. our handle is actually a inside story for me, how much i'm doing the whole team here, bye for now. the a passion for supporting local communities and pioneering innovative african science and technology projects. how, how beautiful, how glorious are all of us on this planet. not just africa, al jazeera, for as

a leading biochemist, determined to use his scientific knowledge to serve africa. women make science from the lab to the field are now to sierra compelling. we keeping our distance because it's actually quite dangerous. ambulances continued to arrive at the scene of the explosion in spite, i still don't feel like i actually know enough about what living under fascism was life unequalled broadcasting. some notes have been august night news for a happy al jazeera english proud recipient of the new york festivals broadcaster of the year award for the 5th year running dictatorships to democracies. activists to corporations, control of the message is crucial. oil companies have become very good at recognizing ways to phrase what they want him to hear. we care about the environment you do to you should buy our oil cleared for public opinion or profit.

once you make people afraid, you can use that to justify stripping away basic civil liberties. the listening post examines the vested interest behind the content you consume on al jazeera, new zealand is a bird watches paradise. but this south pacific nation has one of the worst extinction records on earth rights and other introduced premises have decimated the nike bird population. the decline is still ongoing. if we let it roll for another 50 years, they won't be much left to restore. now you zealand is leading the world with an extraordinary goal to why pat the countries worth paid by 2050. there is low where else on the planet like this. and we now have the technology, the well and the know how to do it and protect those spaces. finally, after 2 days of searching success, we made our 1st k wait. both birds will join 14 other key we released

in the locked b mom. it's a bar to step in saving while t we, which will almost walked out across this region 2 decades ago. ah. ready the u. s. and russian president saw reported to have agreed in principle to hold a summit on the ukraine crisis. an extension of russian military drills on the border maintains fee as if invasion, despite the kremlin denials ah, and i why money and fight this is out. is there a lie from day also coming up. the iranian president arrives in doha, on his 1st visit to go state issues.