but so for the moments city early are not worried about any kind of distress. the economy has a low level of debt, high level of national reserves. and, and, and therefore, you're not going to have the financial crisis that as such as and even happened previously. they didn't have time and they have good resources to write this out. one assumes, therefore, their thinking is that, that there will be some sort of a resolution that the worst case scenario could be avoided and can kind of get back on track in a few months. time and of course the ace that russia has is that if russia is cut off from that low banking system, then the question is whether the rest of the world will be able to pay for the significant amount of energy and material resources that russian exports not just to europe, to the u. s. and other countries. so to that extent, you know, they have to feel that, that they might avoid the worst case sanctions because there will be such a negative contagion to the rest of the world. if those sanctions are put in place,

so you know that they're certainly taken a huge risk, but i can, can his gamble, i guess on the financial side as the read. once you've described chris we by really when a good to have your the program a been trying to get you on for about 2 days now. chris said thank you. thank you very much indeed for your insights and your analysis, chris, we for that. all right, let's bring you up to speed with what's going on. ukraine says russia has launched a full scale invasion. there are reports in ukraine in media that russian troops have landed in the eastern port cities of odessa and mario poll. ukraine's air space has reportedly been shut down, and residents have been told to stay at home ukrainians. foreign minister says several cities are being targeted by russian fire, possibly missiles or artillery. but the defense ministry in moscow says only military infrastructure is being hit. we're getting multiple reports of explosions being heard, mostly in easton, parts of ukraine, and the you inspected, generally demanding that russian president vladimir putin order his troops back. us president joe biden, as now spoken with ukraine's leda. a lot of me,

zalinski. let's bring in how to abdel, how much is live for us in come a toss that's in easton, ukraine, and also to child stratford who's also in marry a poll. hold on. let's come to you 1st in come a tours, just bring us up to date with what's happening, where you are. well at the moment it's called thought about at around 4 35 in the morning we've heard several loud explosions, a fairly close to the city center where we are and then we so of. 2 for a, for a while, several military aircraft, a jet fighters coming, flying over chroma toys. we are told that those are actually ukranian and jet fighters and they were flying quite low. now we know that here in the vicinity of commodore, there is a ukrainian military base, it could very well be that that was the target and those were the explosions. we have heard earlier in the morning in the city here 8,

it seems to be quite calm. even though we did see some people with the bags, i presume they were trying to leave this city as of certainly a lot of anxiety around people wondering what is happening exactly. we're still waiting to hear from the military spokesperson, who is actually here in, in chroma. torres could they told us in about an hour they will give us an update of the targets that have been hit throughout the morning. yeah. how do we hearing from the russian defense ministry that they're saying that only military infrastructure is being targeted in this operation, particularly the air operation in terms of missiles and perhaps artillery. are you seeing signs about a tool that they're being specific about their target selection? well well, vantage point, i can't tell you exactly what as and hit at the at the moment,

but it did sound and it did seem that does was sort of dog it, it pinpointed dead attacks of some sort. and we do know that is a military base. he had is a helicopter based in the surrounding of comp matters. so that could have very well be the been the target of what this morning from what we heard. but those were very loud explosions that actually rock the city. and i'm so i'm sure people here were wondering what was going on because they were extremely loud and they felt and fairly close to where we are. hold on just a final thought you, i'm in terms of civil defense. what are people on the street being told? i mean, we've heard of various cities being hit and arabs, air raid sirens being sounded, but has there been any kind of official response in terms of what people should do under the onslaught of this attack? well, i mean all along in the past few weeks or the gut authorities have been saying that

they have prepared the shelters. there's also been all this training of what they called dave territorial defense units were basically civilians who are received military trainings and weapons and who are supposed to be deployed to the cities to protect infrastructure, to protect civilians. they're allowing the ukrainian army to be on the front lines also 2 days ago, the ukraine and parliament did fast a bill that allowed any civilian to carry out to carry fire arms. um, so you do have this, the government is trying to show that it is there that it has everything in place, but they have the training has been happening as this crisis basically was unfolding. we haven't seen them yet in the cities, and we've been traveling fairly,

or a fair amount around eastern ukraine in it down than cities. and i'm sure charles can tell you more about that from, from his vantage point. but we haven't seen these a territorial defense units deployed yet. the government has been assuring people that that will happen as soon as dinner stood. it is begin. so we should be, or we should be seeing them any time soon, but they are going to be protecting the infrastructure. they're going to be protecting the bridges. they're going to be protecting the cities, the entries and exits of the cities. but more than that, we don't know what is being prepared for the civilians, except that there are shelters. we haven't heard of any sort of humana care, darian corridor, in case things get worse. we haven't heard about any plans of evacuation now. these are early days. he said, really,

the beginning of people were probably wondering what's gonna happen next. we haven't heard any explosions for the past 2 hours or so. so we've just been, i have to wait and see, as i said, from the joint operation joint forces operations is due to give a press conference or a press statement, at least in the coming hour. and it probably have more details then only to hold a abdel, how many doubt zeros hold abdul, hamid there in the east of ukraine in chroma. tossed. the audit, thank you for that. will no doubt be back to you throughout. so the coming hours. let's bring in child stratford in mary paulin, se him ukraine, charlie, you've been there for some time following developments as they happen. what are you seeing now on the ground and hearing around you there? i suppose the 1st explosion that we heard here would have been around 2 hours ago, and there was another one i suppose about an hour later. the 2nd one considerably

seemingly either larger or closer. the situation on the street certainly seems calm as you can imagine. there's a lot less traffic than, than any on any normal day. the big phase here, of course though, that variable is it has a substantial naval base. as we heard there how to sang, the feeling is, is that so russia will target ukrainian military targets. first, we're also hearing reports very interestingly coming out of the city of barrett dunce, which is further west from here. and again, it has a major naval base and miniature contacts. they're telling us there. and hearing shelling, being directed from russian, annexed crimea towards them, or certainly in in that area. but as i say, we cannot in any way verify that we've been speaking to people in some of the villages that we have been visiting over the last couple days on this side of the front line. i just north of here. i think they're telling us that they spent all

nights in bunkers sheltering. they said that the shelling was intense and this was before putins announcement. and they said they're still in those shelters which and, and, and the shelling goes on. as i say, where we are in this, in this area of maria maria, pull it is very calm at the moment and only 2 large explosions. but you can only imagine that the kind of fears, anxieties that the many hundreds of thousands of people that live in the city are feeling at the moment. it's interesting listening to what, what it was saying about civil defense units. very appall is very well known for a paramilitary groups that have been trained by the ukrainian army member, a number of them, some of which in recent years have actually been incorporated into the ukrainian security services under the ministry of interior. and they were very instrumental, very successful in defending the city in 2014 against the russian bank separatists

. we've been visiting some of these groups in the last few weeks or so ab and they telling us they have been prepared. they have set up, they are prepared to to, to defend burial pal until the last. but as i say, this city in particular has a reputation for having a lot of armed men in each with various groups. not only the military and just as we speak, then i heard another dull such a some distance away. yeah, charlie, you've been, you've been talking to lot of ukrainian soldiers who've been in trenches for quite some time in anticipation of this attack. and what a, what have they been telling you in the lead up to this attack? how worried are people and what's the morale like for ukrainian soldiers knowing the might of the russian military yeah, it's very interesting if you compare that kind of morale, a readiness of the ukrainian military now in relation to how they were in 20142015

. when effectively they were routed by the year by the russian back separatists in cities like devout survey. now, under a separatist control, morale is considerably higher but you know, some of the frontline positions that we've been there that we've been visiting and speaking to 2 soldiers, they'll say, okay, i got some training from nato forces for example, a number of men we spoke to recently, who were trained by that by year, by the u. k. and when you go to these positions you, you really get a sense of how isolated they are. these are very young men of many of them who literally, you know, just out of their teen years when this war started, some of them younger than that seemingly. so a lot of them, some of them very, ideologically driven. some of them very obviously thickly patriotic. and they admit that they are concerned, and there's a lot of bravado that comes from them when you speak to them. but at the same time, you know, they're very much aware of just how, how, how deeply outgunned,

they are by, by russia, by rushed by the russian military in terms of military hardware that we've seen. there is a big bang there in front of a i is difficult to say how far away, but that's the 3rd large explosion we've heard in the last couple of hours yet in terms of military hardware that we seen very little, we passed the coil, the rosemary opal a couple days ago, lodge cannon's artillery pieces being, being taken down towards his direction. we, it's fair to say as well, have had not had the kind of access to some of these frontline villages that we've normally had in other times where there's been less tension. and the feeling is that, sir, you know, there are weapons in these areas that sir, that are all ready to defend. the ukrainian military obviously can understand reluctant to show the media that as we were coming through a village on the way back to mary awful. yesterday there was a barrage of artillery from ukrainian guns. we know that we could not that

confirmed and you know that, that they were very much a scant story close to one of those villages on the front line. so yes, morale, it's difficult to gauge a training we know is more substantial. what we also know, as i say, a lot of power militia groups in this city. and as i say that sir, very large explosion is seemingly a couple of kilometers, may be further away. charlie newman has got a final thought to you before you go. and president putin said earlier that the operation in don bass is meant to protect civilians in those separatist areas are of landscape and donnie. it's coming. you've been in, in the dumbass region for many months, years covering the lead up to all of this to people believe him. no. it's as simple as that down. they really don't. we know that in the last, in the last 2 or 3 or 4 years, at least hundreds of thousands of russian passports have been issued to ukrainians

in those separatist controlled areas. and it's, you know, we've had words like genocide being used by putin, a cultural genocide accusing the ukrainians of not protecting russians in that area . now, you know, up until a couple of years ago they weren't russians, they, they're, they're ukrainians who have been issued russian passports. it's fair to say that there's a lot of people in that area who sympathized with russia to live increasingly from their logic with, with russia, even though separate, is controlled areas because of what they say and what they've experienced at the bad end of ukrainian shilling. that's fair, but sir, nobody really believes the rhetoric coming out of russia, that putin is doing this to protect russian citizens. all right, so cha, stratford life was there in mario, poland, se in ukraine, charlie, wilma dot camacho in the hours ahead. charlie, thank you for that. in the meantime, we're hearing reports of huge traffic jams, understandably, i suppose,

am in the ukranian capital key of these, the latest pictures not lie, but the latest pictures you can see there, traffic bumper to bumper, or perhaps people worried panicking about the situation there. but anyway, that's that, that's the dawn picture in the ukrainian capital. the latest pictures we have coming from kiev, as dawn breaks across the ukrainian capital lines and choose a traffic at moving around the city. let's bring in andrew simmons. he joined us again from kiev. andrew, so dawn has broken in the ukrainian capital, just bring us up to date now with what your hearing and seeing there in kids. as you rightly points out there's chaos in the city center with, with traffic and a half reports of panic. i'll just bring you right up to date with what president vladimir zalinski has been saying, because he's made a nation wide television address and saying that russia is conducting at strikes

and shelling of the military infrastructure. he's declared martial law and he said, we are strong. we are ready for anything. we will win this apparently reasonably brief statement or an attempt to, to calm the nerves of a public that's really quite devastated by a this article here in the capital. it would seem very heavy at strikes and indeed a whole series of explosions. we counted well over a dozen. the last the last a large explosion was something like 10 minutes ago. and now we're hearing. we've been hearing the air raid sirens of this city used for the 1st time that they actually sort of faded out something like 10 minutes ago. and we've also heard from the, at the city mer, or who is saying that these are,

he's emphasizing these are attacks on military installations. and we can hear now just hear the air raid sirens. he did say the please, please don't listen to what you're hearing from the russians. there are cyber attacks. the disconnection of communications are possible and the sounds in the city many the sounds of the city aren't necessarily incoming air strikes, that the military have been using missiles to take out drones. he says that. keep calm. this is the mayor of, of boris. spill are not the mayor of the city. i'm sorry. vladimir boris jenko. so the bar a spill is the airport that was appears to be the 1st to come under attack. there you had a particular crunch which sounded like incoming. it certainly wasn't outgoing. ma'am, there is really a general feeling now, verbs we don't know what's gonna happen next. i'm there is confirmation that cities

across the country have come under attack and reports of that naval landing on the as of sea. and there are also reports that occur heave in the southeast has a come under attack and, and it would appear that the main tactic is to use missiles, cruise missiles have been reported by some sources. the internal affairs, ministry of cruise missiles being used to attack military installations. i'm andrew, for our viewers who are just joining out as they are now in tuning into this fast moving story. let's just draw breath wine back a little bit and remind our viewers about the timeline and we were talking to you literally, as the bombs were falling a few hours ago, just talk our viewers through what actually happened when this thing started. while the city awoke in the early hours of the morning and when i say this city

awoke everyone, you couldn't have missed these large explosions and the sky line. blinding flashes on the skyline. it was the airport that was struck 1st or the we are told that it was quickly evacuated. we're not sure of the level of damage to the level of a number of casualties. the earth sirens screaming and then further crunches sounded initially like artillery incoming fire. but this was not the case, it would appear that these were missiles striking military targets. but we don't know the exact nature of these attacks, precise attacks because there is no really accurate information. but apart from these calls for com, but sir, really these air raid sirens are, are doing nothing to calm people or the, the city center is or is really a was with, with fear right now. people of ukraine, they, they've known about

a hybrid war. they've been having to live with war for 8 years. there's 14000 dead in that war in the dumbass and, and, and so, and, and that's the people of voluntary reserves. a lot of people have a military background here. now that a lot of people of a bought guns within this city, and i think it would be at too much to even contemplate the prospect of a street fighting here. this is a strategic approach by the russian army and air force. it would seem to actually try to knock out the main organs of a state as it actually goes about a full scale invasion. no one knows really or how, how things are being planned, but it would appear that there are attacks from all sides. you have the rush lazy in the as or see a mountain girl landings with 2 major landing craft,

reportedly near a desk or actually in odessa we haven't heard what the list situation is there. and also you have 30000 troops in bella. luce, that's a exercise 10 day exercise that perhaps wasn't really a military training exercise at the end. it was extended last sunday and there has been evidently miss our fire from there was, is this, it is only 200 kilometers away. the border with beller roost. there are hundreds of aircraft base there. we heard intelligence reports from the u. s. that everything was fueled up 48 hours ago for invasion. and these reports from america mainly that sir, there was going to be a full scale invasion. well, people in the streets of heard this so many times and there was

a level of complacency, really. all right, her anderson was there for us live in ukrainian capital care of andrew. we'll come back to you just a little bit later. let's begin, peterson. my of his executive director of eurasia democracy initiative and contributor to the odessa review. he joins us via skype from care. peter, thank you very much for your patience. obviously things are moving thick and fast on the ground in your country and your there in the ukrainian capital here. what's, what's, what's your response to what's unfolding now in ukraine? well, i was walking up literally like 30 minutes ago. i had barely no time to put on my clothes when you guys called one thing, it commentary, you know where i can just tell you that we're hearing intermittent explosions. the it's hard to gauge how close they are to the city center where i am right now. on but it's happening and there are several large opposition outside of like population center support. we can have said that is not targeting our major cities

. it seems like it's one of the scenarios that we expected all along. although most analysts sitting here in ukraine would tell you that you would start out with a shocking all campaign in the east of ukraine for an hour and not very many could have predicted that he would be striking at so many multiple targets at once. you know, he wouldn't have said that he's only going at the military installations and not going to target population centers directly. it seems like once again, we've seen him and tried to poke the west in the i yeah, he does. he claims as his he got your boxes. yeah. you're going to say, you know, you know, you're talking about people being surprised and put in as the master of smoke and mirrors isn't a, and in terms of the shock and all that we're seeing play out in places like care of concave, the big cities in ukraine, and it's as you say, it's difficult to get information now because things are things are moving very quickly. but is there a sense that this military operation is effective to knock out things like

telecommunications command centers, military targets. that's, that's the purpose. certainly in the big cities outside of easton, ukraine was a separate thing altogether. yeah, yes. indeed. i was just saying that to put in a rush of responding to but people chris, the bombing of the nato bombing of yugoslavia in 1999 with eric. and i wouldn't take, wouldn't, it wouldn't work. i wouldn't take it to the bank as they say when he says that he's not does not have occupation of ukraine in mind, only to disable military. well, we'll see what happens. but maybe he's just stopping up before there is a mass of land invasion. there's already information of troops moving towards a depth and hard game, you know, and then he's also, there's another ominous very strong regarding ukraine. said that he's going to take

them to court for the military crimes against the dentist that he might be that will try to go in to actually arrest those people. so anything is possible, you know, the situation is developing very, very quickly. and you know, obviously this is very scary, but the ukrainians founding resolve their, their, their, their we've heard from you create individuals are willing to fight, you know, we'll see what really, you know, develops. i'm, i'm sorry, i'm just a little bit. i just woke up. no, no, no, it's fine. it's fine with me on that. then the moment at any moment, just just to let you know, at the moment my internet, you know my disconnect, telephone lines might be disconnected. i would be looking for a landline to see that we have some link with the outside world hours to come. yeah, well hopefully pizza will be able to talk to you a little bit later, but i just got a final thought from you because you were talking about the result of the resilience of ukrainians in the face of this onslaught. i mean, how, how resilient are ukrainians, and i mean they've, they've,

they've been living with this kind of hybrid war, haven't they? since 2014 or so. but again, you know, under the onslaught of the russian military machine, it's pretty difficult for while you know, well, but we'll, we'll just have to see if ukrainian, the more you must prepare just this. eventually, they were aware, softening off is probably coming and sprites of military installations and possibly ministry ministry. the defense and internal affairs. the baby may be taken out by live not too far from them, but probably far enough to where do i can hope that there's no, no strike your meal or at aaron strike. i could that, that hopefully. but you know, this was to be expected. obviously you want to go quickly to just able to, to, to strike at the morale ukrainian art. i mean, if you ask about disability ability, it lee tried to jump just outside my house. people had you for the exits and that's

to be expected. but the hope is that there is at least the massive invasion of the countries converted and deter, from actually trying to fight so far. he is that he's not going to fight, but you know, you said many things in the past, and it's been proven time and again that he's a lawyer, you cannot live with his work. all right, i peter on my going to go to get your thoughts in your assessment. what's happening now as this invasion of ukraine tech space pizza states. i will, will hopefully try and get back to you later in the day. now in a televised address, russian president vladimir putin. so the operations meant to protect civilians and these separatist regions of the nets and against and told ukrainian forces to retreat. please away with me and in the way we get we you to lay down immediately and go home. i will explain all service men of the ukrainian army who comply with this requirement can freely leave the area of military actions and return to the families. but when you, when you, when we tried to stop us and food,

the create threats to our country, to our people, should know that russia response will be immediate and lead you to such consequences that you have never faced in your history. we are ready for any outcome kinda over at esco lives out as there was dosage. barry in the russian capital moscow. dasa said this is the 1st time we're coming to you now since this military operation kicked off. it's what about her 8830 or so in moscow there. and so president putin announced earlier this special operation in the don bass region . just talk through what more he said about this operation on what's happening now in terms of the shock and all that's going on in the other cities in ukraine. well, this is, of course am the now forced time. we've heard from vladimir putin since monday. i think it's become very clear how did the situation escalated so quickly to disappoint, but at the words that he had over the past few days for the local population as

well as a ukrainian leadership. and the international community were very much of that, that she will do whatever he thinks is best. and the interest of those russian citizens in the eastern ukraine region. and i think we were expecting this, but of course, and we also woke up to this news as well as the and message was broadcast at 6 am at local time in moscow. and i think a lot of people haven't heard about it just yet. on my way into the office, i was asking the of the staff members in the hotel. none of them had heard of the news and even the taxi driver thought i was actually um, making a joke. he couldn't believe that this country has actually launch a full scale military attack and in ukraine, i think this is going to become much more clear in the coming hours. how surprised this news will be for the local population? here in russia, a vladimir point has said that and he will pursue all options. he received

a full go ahead from the 2 levels of government here, a parliament, the do my and that the upper house earlier on tuesday. and he was asked that that time whether or not he will send troops and he said he hadn't decided to send any troops in yet to the dumbass region after he declared the separatist areas as independent states in logan's and don't yet see. and then late last night, as we heard from the separate leaders in those 2 regions, asking moscow for military assistance, because they said that they were under attack by the premium military. this is, of course, going to be very difficult for they a domestic population here to understand and comprehend why their military is down engaged in full scale war in ukraine. i did a story yesterday. it was a national holiday here, it was their version of remembered stay here where we saw vladimir putin re a lay reef.