program looks at the use and abuse of power. nato conducts the biggest military optic exercise in the cold war with 35000 troops from 28 countries. time and then explores the lessons learned from the global h i v epidemic and how that would help quite cold ignite after recent to milton period. vent, sorry to make it in power. hong kong goes to the post to the chief executive march on a jessia. ah, roches more rhetoric gets concrete backing president vladimir putin is given, formal approval to deploy forces outside of the country. and your response after moscow recognizes to break away regions in east and ukraine. the gnawed stream to gas pipeline project is suspended. ah,

hello, i'm marianne was in london. you're watching al jazeera, also coming up on the program. we are watching the white house very closely this hour. where you as president joe biden will soon address the escalating situation in easton ukraine. the russia continues to plan for a fee scalar talk, a ukraine, and the nato chief warns russian forces are now in combat. ready positions can diplomacy to reverse all our conflicts? ah, we begin with fast moving developments in russia, where president vladimir fusion has been given parliamentary approval to deploy troops abroad is comes 24 hours after russia officially recognized to break away regions in eastern ukraine and video, emerging military vehicles moving through the streets. that was

a move which prompted a strong response from western countries, including germany, which has now suspended a major gas pipeline project with russia. but let me, putin said kia must renounce its ambitions for nato membership in order to deescalate the conflicts. mister tish, because we have recognised the expanded version of the 2 ukranian breakaway regions, including their constituents, their boarders were stated in their constitutions when they were part of ukraine. and we hope to kiev and the breakaway republics can work out their differences on the border issue. that you will dosage of ari joined aside from the russian capital moscow. and does that may not have been any official announcement about this. what information have you been hearing about the deployment of russian troops? ah, well, the russian president, vladimir putin was asked at a pick up press conference following his meeting with the president of azerbaijan,

earlier on tuesday. and he said that he has not ordered any troops to go in at the moment for now at, but we know that the ab, russia rushes upper house of parliament approved unanimously a request from the president for him to be able to deploy troops anywhere at any time and to carry out any tasks that he see fit. of course, he's the commander in chief edna's country. so he really now has the final approval officially from all levels of government government to do as he see fit. but according to president putin, there are no deployments of any russian troops at the moment officially in those newly declared independent states in eastern ukraine. this, of course, comes at a time when everybody's watching what is happening alongside the border between russia and ukraine. there's a lot of concern that the heavy military presence is just making the situation much more complicated and dangerous. there are fears that it could be

a further escalation since the declaration and then reports of russian troops in the dawn bass region. although they were thought to be there, and in reality anyway, what has been the reaction to all of this inside the country because it seemed as though that long speech from the president last night was also very much aimed at a domestic audience. initially people reacted at the by being very surprised. it's not very common for the president to broadcast 1st, his extraordinary security council session for the public to hear everything that was said. and also that address to the nation is not done very often by vladimir putin, but i think it was a very much seen as a success because many people here are that i spoke to the following morning early this morning. they said that they understand why the president has decided to do what he does. there are at 2000000 people living in the dumbass region,

out of that to 1800000 of them have russian passports. so there is a sense that at this country has very close ties to that area, but also to ukraine in general. the area just behind me right now that we're in is called little ukraine within moscow. so there is a sense that they 2 countries sure very much a common history and past, and they were very much intertwined. so the notion that this rhetoric that this country has played out that they are going to help the people of that area because they are under threat by the government in kiev is very much oh, received well here. and i think it's letting me put in has said that they recognize the borders of the independent states, as they stated them in the constitution, which they formed in 2014. and this is very significant because in the constitutions of those breakaway regions, they state that they owe and they are under, they control much larger areas and they actually do on the ground at the moment about 30 percent of what they control. now in the dumbass region,

but of course this creates a whole other avenue for vladimir putin to argue his case that there should be some kind of action taken to insure those borders as well. the agreement he signed last night gave him a tenure piece agreement with an the, a newly declared republic. so he can that put the russian troops in those areas whenever he sees fit, or when he's asked by those at independently declared states at the moment as have been much of a reaction to sanctions, particularly the suspension of the node stream to gas pipeline dos of because course it via there is the prospect of this, of effecting a, an economy in russia that is very dependent on, on these resources. ah, the russians have been preparing for this for months. and the nordstrom to pipeline was never even operational. it hasn't been operational since it was completed last

year and i had their russians were expecting that it wouldn't be coming online any time soon. the one thing they it russians have said that is that they fear the german government is politicizing energy and that is what this foreign minister surg oliver offset after the announcement earlier today from germany's government and for them this is very unfortunate or for the europeans, the russians have said that they are not relying on that income. they weren't counting on it any time going online, so they've prepared themselves against the sanctions as well since they came under a number of them in 2014, when they annexed crimea. the russian economy has also been trying to get it that voted me putting has been trying to protect the russian economy, making a number of changes over the past few months. preparing for these sanctions, despite what the officials are saying, we had seen the russian currency lose over 5 percent of its value on tuesday, as well as the russian stock markets. i went down about 20 percent as

a result of the events of the past 24 hours. despite the numbers, the officials are adamant that they can withstand any a sanctions because a lot of foreign investors are involved in russian companies. and the, one of the examples is this a pipeline nor stream to. it's not just a russian project. there are many, many european international companies involved in this $11000000000.00 project that to 5 years to complete. so the russian position is, if you put any sanctions on us, you're actually hurting yourself more. all right, thank you dos jibari there in moscow. and we can now speech child stratford, he's in mario, poland, se in ukraine. and so charles, this is a town that has actually dealing been dealing with this. the uncertainty of this conflict fe is now and it's a front line city. what is the atmosphere there? is we hear these reports of troops being deployed or yes,

mario po was say at one time actually control to buy separate his forces in 2014 . and i think the big thing on people's minds in the city this evening is this announcement by vladimir putin that russia recognizes the dpr and the l. p. r. according to the 2014 constitution in those self declared republics. that being the case, any kind of recognition of that air, it would indeed potentially take into consideration include cities like mary awful and big cities, big towns like slavery, ants, cremmit halls get is a huge, expansive, a larger area. dan is currently controlled by the the separatist regime accepts his forces. so a lot of people overseas thinking about that am in general, this area that we've been visiting today along the frontline village is there. we've heard sporadic shelling and i should say,

heavy shelling throughout the day and be concern amongst people in these villages of a potential of people concern because they are aware of an evacuation that is ongoing in the separatist controlled areas of people close to the frontline. no such evacuation plan has been put into place here. and this comes at a time this evening as well after a statement made in the last hour or so by the ukrainian military that from to morrow 6, i am local time. they are going to make the area from the front line 10 kilometers back from the front line, right, the way up, that's 420 kilometers. they're going to restrict access to that area on a temporary basis. they don't go into great detail, but they say that the only people allowed in that area will be international, humanitarian aid organizations delivering aid. now that area has literally hundreds of thousands of people living in it. and then as i say,

as this shilling has continued to day, and one would expect will continue sporadically as throughout the night. so these kind of statements being made from russia about recognizing an area that is considerably larger pushing further into ukraine. yeah, there are increasing concerns by, by hundreds of thousands of people living in this region this evening. yes, because earlier on the russian president can find that the territories of the, the l d n r, as you say, those are the pre 2014 administrative orders. so right now they control about 30 percent and the concern was when they can find the declaration recognizing the independence, the break way, regions that at that ms. laying the groundwork to try and go beyond that current line of control. now of course, none of this will be acceptable to kiev, so a people that are anticipating that it could be in,

out of some sort of violence or, or possible, or taken shelling and clash as the community sites. i've just i think that's very much the cases of saying, i mean, as this has gone on as it progressed as the rhetoric seems to change as well. certainly the emphasis of the rhetoric coming out from moscow yesterday. we heard from, from a, from putin saying that he recognized the dpr in the elf. we are today, it was more specific. we recognize them according to the 2014 constitution. sure. who sang includes this far larger area of land. and that is also consisted with some of the statements that have been made to day by the respective leaders in the self declared republics. both the dpr and the l. p r. and certainly the leader of the da da da dpr talking to the russian media and asked a question by russian journalist as to whether that could be any kind of expansion

and in further into ukrainian territory. and his answer was consistent with what puter was saying was that so, you know, our territory is, according to that 2014 constitution as to how we respond. and he said it's too early for that. and of course, putin has said that, so any kind of military action by the russian military will depend on what happens on the ground. so yeah, the rhetoric has changed somewhat in the lasts of 24 hours, certainly from moscow. that's consistent with the certainly what as a say, the leader of the self declared to nance people's republic is saying, so get the big fair on people's minds right. the way across this region, the seasoning is, you know, when will this start? are we potentially looking at some sort of operation that could push further into ukraine? and it's really important to recognize as well. this notion of false flag operations, full flag operations that ukrainian government,

that they western back as accused the separatist in russia of trying to, we're trying to fabricate in order to give them a pretext to push further in, as we heard dorsey, and there are around 800000 ukrainians. that in the last few years have been issued russian passports inside those territories, the separatist territories am. and you know, it's very much the full front of, of russia's rhetoric that it blames ukraine for what he describes as an escalation . and it's, it's going in as a piece keeper at this stage to protect those russian citizens. but as i say, any kind of full slag operation in any way along this line, that for example, would in fairy jeopardize a, those citizens could be used as a protect potentially for, to say a further push a further military escalation. and that is a great concern to say to hundreds of thousands, many people are living along with frontline tonight, and it is important to get

a sense of what's happening there. indeed, the front entity of my uncle as the weights, the last president to deliver his latest address for now shall strap at thank you very much. well, the present russian president letting a treating as any demilitarization of ukraine as the any solution to stop the conflict. as you've been reporting, it's not clear if russian trips have consented to your clients to break my legions . danielle can land school. that official authorization is that bernard smith reports now from moscow. this so died for a country. vladimir putin doesn't think should exist the russian precedence decree, recognizing a part of eastern new crane as to new independent republics is according to keep defense minister an attack on its territorial dignity. i hope that leaders will differ income, which promised us that the sanctions will be off the de leon.

i think that that paper invasion, a lot of ukraine's presidents that says he doesn't believe russia will launch all out war against his country. but he wants the international community to react decisively against what he calls a new act of russian aggression, missouri. i must sure the believe that by taking this decision, the russian federation creates a legal basis for further military aggression against ukraine. violating all bilateral and multilateral agreements. sure. but that's not how russia's parliament sees it was here. vladimir putin's decision is welcomed as the writing of an historical wrong just by the annexation of crimea. murray, this is an historic day just like 7 years ago when crimea returned to the fault and became part of the russian federation of thought to day. now and forever. there will be 2 new sovereign states on the world. political map that an esque animal guns people's republics. but separatists internet scan, la ganske only control about

a 3rd of the territory. they claim where they were celebrating on tuesday. the other 2 thirds is held by ukrainian forces, who now find themselves on land. russia recognizes as to new republics, which up to select your us or we've signed agreements with both the done yet canoe . hans people's republics that contain article same will provide help, including militarily, such as far as there's conflict going on there. we're making it clear we will fulfill our obligations democracy with the criminals, as recognizing as independent the to break away ukrainian regions will help restore calm. adding that it remains open to diplomacy with the u. s. and other countries. russia also dismisses allegations that it sent its forces in the east and ukraine. the kremlin says whether it does or not depends on how the situation develops. bernard smith out his era, moscow western countries are started to impose sanctions on rusher off to moscow, officially recognized the 2 disputed areas in ukraine as independent. these are the

2 eastern regions on the border with russia at the heart of the current town. while the hans can don yet they encompass the area that is known as the dumbass, where sat bridges have been fighting ukrainian forces since 2014. that been mixed reactions among people in separatist held areas as we're hearing from our corresponded earlier. a wooden cinema woods and wasn't lucille mother. it is were important for all of us. the piece will finally come to our republic and to lou haskell, we just want peace and calm for us. it is very important. we want to live as one big family together with russia. root the mobile food services has been of the chefs of it is such a bleak environment at the moment. i don't know how good the decision is and if it will bring peace. now everyone is very worried, everyone is being taken away from their fathers brothers, husbands. in fact, everyone is very scared. and you know, which are in response. germany as put on hold

a major gas pipeline project from russia. the north stream, tillie hearing about that earlier. i'll just there is journal hall brings us more on that part of the story. thus, at dawn is, as president vladimir putin ordered russian troops into eastern ukraine, west and sanctions were issued in response. today, the u. k is actually the following. 5 russian banks, rossier i asked bank jim, but general bank a property as bank and the black sea bank and we're sanctioned in 3 very high net worth in vigils. kanadi, tim jenko, boris rothenberg and eagle rothenberg. the british prime minister called it a 1st barrage, promising more if boot in advance is deeper into ukraine. e u sanctions. we're also restrained, targeting, members of parliament and limiting russian access to european capital markets and washington has banned us business dealings with that to break away regions in eastern ukraine. germany did go further calling

a halt to the 11000000000 dollar nod stream to pipeline project. highly prized by russia and built to deliver gas to europe, bypassing ukraine. but russian investment experts say none of it will trouble the kremlin. the to banks that have been mentioned are, are all state banks that are funded domestically. i don't not rely and european markets have not for years because they have been subjected to a u. s. sanctions and the individuals have, you mentioned are certainly a heart african putin's a circle of friends. but they have also been subject to us sanctions are for many years. so. so really what day you can, you, you are doing now is simply catching up with sanctioned stepping in place by the u . s. for many years. the threat of full sanctions. retaliation is being held in reserve depending what putin does next. measures dubbed sanctions from hell by the

u. s. senate would in theory, target whole sectors and industries with crippling economic effect. it is a threat that one prominent criminal critic believe's legs credibility. he invaded georgia. no sanctions from hell. he took crimea, no sanctions from hell. he shot down a passenger plane with us with a 298 innocent people know sanctions from hell and all of a sudden worth worth reading sanctions from hell. and what do we do? we make a, a minor, tepid addition to the us sanctions list basically coming up to where they were 4 years ago. that's not credible. that doesn't scare poor. he doesn't believe were for real. part of the problem is western resolve, stiff sanctions against russia would hurt europe in return with strong ties in trade and energy. and other is russian resilience holding the world's 5th largest financial reserves built up especially to cushion the blow. ultimately, the calculation is putins alone to make. he's got away with it so far. he may feel

this insufficient reason to turn back now, but he's my jonah haul al jazeera. my name is alan fisher joins us live now from the white house. and we've been expecting president biden to speak for the last hour or so, but no sign of him kind of makes no sense that you would originally say it was going to happen at 19 g, which is now then move it to 18 g. and then dinner and 20 minutes late. what would expect to hear from joe biden is that he is going to call this an invasion. we've had that was used by law dawson, the defense secretary, when he was meeting ukraine's foreign minister at the pentagon. in the last couple of hours. there is no way that the defense secretary is using a term that the president himself won't use. that means it will spark sanctions, but at one spot, the phil sanctions that joe biden has been talking about for the last number of weeks. instead, it is going to be targeted. they will be severe. we're told it's likely to hit the banking sector of the technology sector and people very close to the russian army,

members of the duma and those who are friends of vladimir putin himself. the reason these not throwing the kitchen sink at the russians at this stage is because he wants to leave a diplomatic all from for the moment. the meeting between antony, blinking the secretary of state and said, guy lover of the russian foreign minister is still open in geneva, or in thursday, would expect to hear more from joe biden, who's no speaking at the white house. yesterday. vladimir brood recognized 2 regions, ukraine as independent states. and he bizarrely asserted that these ridges are no longer part of the ukraine and their sovereign territory. to put it simply russia just announce those carving out a big, chunky ukraine. last night, shooting, authorized russian forces to deploy into the region. these races today, he asserted that these regions are actually extend deeper than the 2 areas. he recognized claiming large areas currently under the jurisdiction,

ukraine government. he set up a rationale take more territory by force in my view. and if we listen to his speech last night, and many of you did, i know he's, he's setting up a rationale to go much further. this is the beginning of a russian invasion of ukraine, as he indicated and asked permission to be able to do from his doom. so let's begin to. so i'm going to begin to impose sanctions and response. far beyond the steps we in our allies and partners implemented in 2014. and if russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further. as with sanctions, who in the lord's name, this prudent thing gives him the right to declare new, so call countries on territory the belong to his neighbors. this a flagrant violation of international law and demands of firm response from the national community. over the last few months,

we've coordinated closely with our nato allies and partners in europe and around the world to prepare that response. we settle along and i told, put him into his face some money a month more than a month ago that we would act together. and the moment russia moved against ukraine, russia is now on denial. lee moved against ukraine by declaring these independent states. so today i'm announcing the 1st trance of sanctions to impose costs on russia in response to their actions yesterday. these have been closely coordinated with our allies and partners, and will continue to escalate sanctions of russia escalates. were implementing full blocking sanctions on 2 large russian financial institutions, v b and our military back recommending comprehensive sanctions on russia's sovereign debt. that means we've cut off russian government from western financial. it can no longer raise money from the west and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or

european markets, either starting tomorrow and continued in the days ahead. will also impose sanctions on russia's leads and their family members. they share in the crop gains of the criminal policy and to sharon, the pain as well. and because of russia's actions, we work with germany to insure nor stream to will not as i promise, will not move forward. as russia contemplates this next move, we have our next move prepared as well. rush, we'll pay an even steeper price if it continues to aggression, including additional sanctions. united states will continue to provide defensive assistance ukraine in the meantime, and will continue to reinforce and reassure our nato allies today in response to russians admission that it will not withdraw its forces from bella. ruth, i have authorized additional moments of us forces in equipment already station in

europe to strengthen our baltic allies, estonia, lottery, and lithuanian. let me be clear. these are totally defensive moves on our part. we have no intention of fighting russia. we want to send an unmistakable message though, that united states together with our allies, will defend every inch of nato territory and abide by the commitments we made it to nato. we still believe that russia is poor to go much further and launching a mass of military attack against ukraine. hope i'm wrong about that. hope we're wrong about that. russia is only escalated his threat against the rest of ukrainian territory, including major cities, including the capital city, keith, thirst. there are still well over a 150000 russian troops surrounding ukraine. and as i said, russian forces remain position and bella roost to attack ukraine from the north, including war, plains, and offensive missile systems. russia is moved, troops closer to ukraine's border with russia. russia's naval vessels are

maneuvering in the black sea to ukraine, south, including any previous assault ships, missile, cruisers, and submarines, rushes mo, supplies and blood and medical equipment and a position on the border. you don't need blood unless your plan started or over the last few days. you've seen much of the play book that secretary lincoln laid out last week in the united nations security council. come to pass a major increase in military provocations and false flag events along the lines of contact with domino's dramatically stage, conveniently on camera meetings of food security council, the grandstand for the russian public. and now political provocation of recognizing sovereign ukrainian territory so called independent re republics. in clear violation again of international law. president putin has sought authorization from the russian parliament to use military force outside of rushing towards the

territory. and this set the stage for further pretext of further provocations by russian to try to justify further military action. none of us, none of us should be fool. none of us will be fool. there is no justification. further rushing to solve the grade remains of severe threat in the days ahead of russia proceeds. it is russia and russia alone, the bears the responsibility. as we respond, my administration is using every tool our disposal protect american businesses and consumers from rising prices at the pump. as i said last week, defending freedom will have cost for us as well. and here at home, we need to be honest about that. but as we will do, but as we do this, i'm going to take robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted russian economy not ours. were closely monitoring energy supplies for any

disruption rec, security to plan and coordination with major oil producing consumers and producers toward a collective investment to secure stability and global energy supply. this will be, this will want gas prices. i want to limit the pain, the american people are feeling the gas pump. this is critical to me. in the last few days, i've been in constant contact with your opinion leaders, including with ukrainian pressures. lensky, vice president harris met in person with the leaders in germany over the weekend at the munich conference, including president lisky. at every step, we have shown the united states and our allies and partners are working in unison, which he hasn't been counting on mr. put. where you 9 is in our support of ukraine . we are united and are opposite the russian aggression. and we're united and resolved to defend our nato alliance. and were united in our understanding of the

urgency is seriousness of the threat. russia is making the global pieces stability yesterday. the world heard clearly.