or channels all over the world. a larger than life character one did much to take cricket beyond its normal audience. she chose my thoughts and i, and i helped to choose a shoes that's i got to missions pretty good, the cricket community and why the sporting world has lost one of its most unique talents. ah, this is our desert. these you top stores. russia has drawn world wide condemnation or to being accused of attacking a nuclear plant that had seized in ukraine. fire broke out of the facility in the early hours of friday morning. it was extinguished without any radiation spikes. russia says ukrainian saboteurs or to blame and a sign of global alarm about the nuclear plants. seizure. the un security council scrambled together for an emergency meeting, was analyzed amount of the kremlin. never allow on

a tank like that. again with the u. s saying it put the people of ukraine, russia and europe, rest, ukrainian authorities say 47 people were killed by russian as strike in china. have pictures from the city show days residence. wandering through the wreckage, a bombed out apartment blocks and buildings. equations president lazare zalinski has thank a people in europe their support while urging countries to take further action against russia. he address thousands of anti war protesters and european cities via tapes recording crowds gathered in places including frankfort leal and proc you know, what's wrong to the people of europe. i would like to call on you not to be silent . i would like to call you to come out to the streets and support ukraine supporter efforts and support our fight. because if ukraine does not stand, europe will not stand. if we will fall, you will fall, so please do not be silent. do not turn

a blind eye on this. come out and support ukraine as much as you can. present the landscape, maintaining pressure on nato to intervene more heavily on ukraine's battlefields. and in the skies. the alliance as foreign ministers meeting in brussels reiterated that such a move would only bring more death and destruction and rushes government has blocked facebook, restricted access to twitter, and bounds from foreign media. websites is also approved a new law against what it regards is fake news and a suicide bombers killed at least 56 people and injured 200 others. and a sheer mosque in pakistan, funerals happened held for some of those killed in the north western city. shower the suicide bomber 1st open fire on the whole, forcing his way inside and then detonated his suicide. okay, those headlines coming up next inside story. free fall precision. these athletes are experts in the art of jumping out of planes.

more than 40 military parachuting teams have descended here to the desert of katara to compete for the world championship title. the competitors are all active military members and have been training for years to get here. most have tens of thousands of jumps to their names. each country will compete in 3 disciplines. freefall, skydive, accuracy, landing, and 4 way formation. men and women compete separately. but under the same flag, you know, i can't do a story about paris shooting and not jump out of a plane as we climb up. the teams mentally prepare for their job. i try to do the same then minutes later, once the earth is just a blur below it's time to free fall. nato's has it does not seek war but is ready for it is foreign ministers have met

the stuff, the conflict in ukraine, but will the alliance get involved with a does what will be the consequences this is inside story. ah, ah hello and welcome to the program. i'm danny and abigail. the russian invasion of ukraine is now in its 2nd week, and there's no sign of a lead up friday saw the attack on europe's largest nuclear facility by russian forces in ukraine. the site caught fire before being put out. it sparked worldwide condemnation on fears of a catastrophic radiation leak. nato, for ministers have madam brussels for a special summit on ukraine. the alliance has opposed more sanctions on the russian leader latimer putin and his inner circle. and the u. s. is going after business

leaders who are closely tied to the kremlin. but none of this appears to be swaying chris in into pulling back his troops. the u. s. sector stay down to the blink and says, nato does not want confrontation with moscow, but it stands ready if conflict comes while the head of the alliance condemned russia's attack on the nuclear sites as reckless so they don't know that in reports about impact against nuclear power does that correct? that's of this war and the port ending in the restaurant we're doing all the stoops . i'm engaging. good faith in diplomatic efforts. every ally in one way or another is coming to you phrases, every ally in one way or another is helping strengthen nato itself. and is the secretary general said ours is a defensible lives. we seek no conflict, but if constantly comes to us,

we're ready for it. and we will defend every inch of natal territory. we'll bring in our guests in a moment, but 1st let's look at why ukraine has long been a particularly sensitive issue for moscow. it was part of the russian empire before becoming a soviet republic and then winning independence in 1991. when the soviet union collapsed. moscow has since been concerned with keeping ukraine out of nato flood, where putin says the west promised. in the past, nato wouldn't expand eastwards, but since 99714 more countries have joined the alliance mainly in the east. there were tensions 8 years ago when mass protest toppled the ukrainian president, victoria markovich. he posts for closer ties to moscow, rather than the e. u. a russians armed forces responded by an ex thing, the crimea peninsula and backing a separatist rebellion in eastern ukraine. the membrane, our gas joining us from brussels as brooks taking her. who's the correspondent for

jane, defense, weekly magazine, and washington dc. robert hunter, a former us ambassador to nato. joining us from moscow, andre bucklin off was the chairman of the board of the association of russian diplomats. i thank you so much for your time with us on inside story. ambassador robert over to you, young thornburgh has just said that nato is not part of the conflict. nato is a defensive alliance. we don't seek war or conflict with russia, but the longer this goes on, what does nato do? then? the native commandment under article 5 of the treaty of washington is to defend countries that are formerly members of the alliance. and everybody, nato is trying to get across to mr. potent, that whatever happens in ukraine, and i'm sure we're going to be talking about that. i better not make any mistake as to put it by the american secretary of state. any russians coming in to add

a nato countries, nato coding in our history is ready to respond. so it's going to be overheard firm defense of all nato. comes to that at the same time, while a number of countries are providing weaponry to do craniums. no, no, no, no country. he's prepared to go to war for your crime, which is not a native member. alright. brooks over to you, did you share the same point of view as the ambassador does, or what does nato do? this continues the war on ukraine. we've. we've seen all sort of unprecedented reaction so far, including of course, the sanctions on russia as well as for the 1st time the purchase and delivery of weapons to ukraine itself. yes, i agree with lambert, said all the way down the line on, on the policy and the article 5 issues. if this, if russia continues its aggression and the threat perception increases on nato's

part, what can you do? well, it has to do more of what is already done, which effectively just describe both robert and the secretary general. but also i think if they are going to help you crane, even though they can't find their jets there and put any boots on the ground, they need to step up the weapons transfers which are not necessarily very speedy given. they got to go across the land, primarily rushes blocking most of the c access. so and d, i just asked a section of this question in press conference. you know, you should need to consider setting up a more permanent structure for moving weapons. coordinating bilateral transfers among the weapons, nato itself doesn't transfer weapons of course, but he was doing this with poland. seems to me it would make sense to at least set up a standing ad hoc standing structure that's more than ad hoc either. that rotates among the allies as a coordinator, or it's coordinate by nature. but the secretary general seem to suggest that's not

on the table for the time being since you're in that press conference, let me just get one more question to you burton. that is the calls by the ukranian president, i'm sure you've heard for nature to enforce the no fly zone. now this is something that the secretary general has come out and said that is not going to happen. he has ruled out that idea lithuanian prime minister describing it is irresponsible. do you think that nato is going to stick to us? it has to, unless it wants war, i mean to set up a no fly zone and enforce that over the skies of ukraine would put allied troops and equipment and weapons directly in conflict with those of russia, and that would be war. so simple answer. now. all right, andre, over and moscow, over the last weeks we in this is according to to nato. in fact, what they're saying is that they have increased their presence in the eastern part of the alliance. and for the 1st time, they are deploying the nato response force with french troops. now arriving in

romania. this is quite unprecedented with nato building up its military. how is this being perceived by the kremlin? actually, there is nothing special in these facts because with this is the part a litigation over the many years of the method policy. they are bringing closer and closer their military infrastructure to our territory. the roar, 14 members of the blog, now they are ha, having 30 members of the, of the block. and officially, if we started the documents of nato, the officially are attributing for the overt enemy to us so. so well, actually, what we have now for the, the more than 20 years, nato is coming closer, closer to or a to, to i was cities or to our centers of industrial might. this is very dangerous. we

remember the lessons of 1941 when hitler ah, a tech to us, and we are not going to make the same mistakes as we did a before. the 2nd was war when we was very cautious not to start the war, not too well, but we were trying to go out at not took her water, but it was in vain. and now we are warning the vest are not to come closer and closer to us. this is too dangerous to our sales and we will defend our so which we already started in the process of benefit occasion. over over you brain, we are calling this liberation person. right. but the rest. all right, the west? yeah, right, right. but let me just jump in there me because another way to describe it, as we've seen by the, by western countries as well as the united states and nato is that they are in fact

describing this as an invasion under about 20. but let me put some of what you had to say to robert hunter over in washington, your response to the comments out of russia and also let me just ask you this. i mean, in january the u. s. secretary state said that natal his door is open, it remains open, and that is our commitment. knowing full well that this is something that bother is rochelle, to what extent says this open door policy, maximize friction with russia ambassador? and as a result has culminated in this current crisis, i can understand the concern in russia about not having ukraine be a member of nato, which is going to happen at the same time if you're talking about $941.00 and operation barbarossa in which the nazis went into the soviet union. the operation barbarossa now is being conducted by russia against another country. and if there's any parallel with the nazis agenda, kremlin j, ironically,

the soviet union fought for 2 and a half years to keep the nasty out of the kremlin. and now they're, they're hurt at the kremlin causing, causing conflict. there was no justification. what so ever for what russia is doing nato? no, no, no country. i'm not ukraine, which is not a narrow country, is posing any threat. what so ever had to russia, mr. put knows, it is for whatever reason, using a forms of words to justify an aggressive military action of unprecedented sense. what is what the russians call the bridge patriotic war. all right, so mr. burton is concerned, he could just stop to go shake and get everybody from russia back out here saying, here's the thing. was for a moment the warn ukraine follows decades of warnings that nato expansion into

eastern europe could actually provoke russia. and this is from the ca director william jaber, and he'd been warning about it since 995. saying this hostility to early nato expansion is almost universally felt across the domestic domestic political spectrum here. and when president bill clinton's administration moved to bring poland, hungary and the czech republic into nato, he said the decision was premature at best needlessly provocative. were so there happened warnings about this in the past. brook, signor, should we not be surprised? the things have gotten to this point, but i'm not sure i fully agree with her. let's remember that when the so you don't agree with you don't agree with the statement that was made by the c i, director, which has been echoed in fact, not others, including henry kissinger and a 2014 opinion opinion piece of course. so what that doesn't mean a journalist can contest it, and i do for the following reason. when the soviet union fell apart and when the

warsaw part back fell apart. let's remember that these countries on their own chose to join nato. the way a russian speaker is framed, the issue is that it's as if nature, belligerently expanded eastward, it didn't, there was a process. it's a, it's the path as the we've heard nature, officials say over and over again. it is the democratic and independent choice of each country to join the alliance. these countries asked to join if they weren't interested in joining nato, they wouldn't have an oil. and then what you end up, you end up with no man's land, a strip of land running down north south through europe, which i suppose russia would have liked to be permanent. but these countries did not want that permanent status. they asked to join nato, or you couldn't. you could argue that maybe nature could have waited longer than 1997 to let them in another 5 or 10 years to massage relations with russia. but on the other hand, there was a lot of pressure from these east european capitals to join nato,

and perhaps they had a reason for doing so. andre, would you like to respond? yes. first of all, i'd like to on the line, on the 3rd to be sure of french in united states are ignoring the fact is that the, the present day, a government and but the, the rules of, or in keith they came originally in 2014 as a cool data illegal put a thought in this is reversed, but okay. oh good. i thought can happen, but it's a full they thought a very specific nature and the uh the, the people now occupy and the key positions they are nazi. so we think that a present day, a campaign, a vicious dipper allegation of our or war which we can against the, the nazi germany, the nazi germany and the called europe backed. we don't remember that that all the

europe we're occupied and the rule in shockers will willingly help her this nazi germany. and they made 60 percent of the necessary equipment for the german aggressive army. we remember a visa, where you, you know, facts about the behavior over the course of the crate. but i'd really like to keep in discussion with you on today's headlines. this is anti nazi because i'm not, i'd really like when he was not really not today's events. ambassador robert hunter, it weigh in please, because i see you shaking your head well, if anybody is behaving like cassie germany today is mr. pruitt. i don't know whether he has a lot of support. his own country, petitioner evasion of a sovereign country, which posed 0 threat to russia or anybody else. nato has never invaded any european country that russians could possibly care about.

they got involved in bosnia and kosovo because of the incredibly bad things were happening there. and in fact, the russian supported o nato, in the west did in bosnia and then sent troops to the to the implementation force. but there is absolutely no justification at all. hawaii to russia is now joined. but what do you make of the arguments ambassador, that russia russia feels like it's already is in fact threatened because we have seen activities in that particular region such as war games with american tank staged in nearby baltic states. we have rocket states stations in both poland and romania and russia seas. this is a threat to a security. if you're asking me. yes, i, i happen after the invasion of crimea as a john bass region in 2014 and remember up in jail when there has been the nato

russia founded act. russia was involved in the council, with nato as an equal, as to brussels. could have continued tat, but instead mister decided and 2014, to seize a chunk of, of europe. and that was uncalled for unprovoked. there is no threat from nato. nobody can possibly call while anything nato was done as a provocation to russia. whenever mister bruce has in mind, that's only in his mind, but he is an aggressive state. and one of the problem is coming out of this is there is no western stake coating united states that will ever again be able to deal with mister. rush wants to have a healthy relationship, rush is going to have to take care of it on leadership. we're going to discuss that also in a moment. i'd like to get your take on what happens next. but 1st work, signor, if you can just give us some context of this because why would natal want to move

east in the 1st place? you know, since 99714 more countries have joined the alliance mainly in the east. well, it's not written, it's the one i repeat. what i said earlier. it's not that natal wanted to movies. it's the fact that there were countries in eastern part of europe that asked to join nato. so therefore there was an organic expansion. there was no great game plan to us, all of a sudden x and nato's entire frontier east, where it just happened. step by step. as far as for some of these exercises that are russian speakers refer to, i mean, robert, now to another point, most of these project 2014 premier, most of these exercises were notified by both sides quite diligently under the sci fi, conventional forces in europe convention treaty. so everyone knew what everyone was doing, but since then things have become much more ambiguous as both sides try to figure

out what the other is doing or the notifications haven't taken place, certainly from the russian side. so you can interpret whether nato is having more aggressive military exercise in the eastern as you like. but i will say one other thing on the propaganda front, or at least on the language that's coming out of russia to, to characterize ukraine's, your political leadership as nazis. and that the russian needs of the nazi fi ukraine has been, is just outrageous. it has a really inflamed most of the ukrainians. i know, and it's a great irony to accuse the country president of being a nazi when in fact i think there's zalinski has lost family members during during all cost. and then 2nd, reward to this, isn't it kind of language is not helping relations at all. andrea backline and the secretary general of nato stillberg has said that nato entering the fighting in

ukraine could leads to widespread war in europe. i mean, looking ahead, what is the view from russia about about what happens next in the coming days and weeks a heads that so. so all i'd like to correct a little bit of our, the sake of value for the 2nd time. and i'd really appreciate an answer to my question. let's look ahead and, and tell me what you think will happen. well, actually, we are very much a, you know, nervous about the merchant, irish coming from, from europe. they are sending approximately $16000.00 mercenaries out there and also a new and new ottomans coming to the kinds of these nazi elements. and the, the minister of foreign affairs yesterday reacted to these i think. and they said that again and again in 20th century. and now and with century german,

for instance, are sending the, the, the amendments to keel russian. but once again with what is pollutant and aim with the war and ukraine. well, actually uh we, uh, we came to the point where it's necessary to do something. you know, that in munich, a few weeks ago, the so called president of ukraine. he claimed that ukraine will acquire atomic weapons. well, we made a impossible for the not to germany to inquire before because we in 1945, and it will not. but with all due respect, he is the date of the crane who you are elected president of ukraine. so i don't think we can call on the so called let me go over to robert hanser in washington member there,

184 we on the show or before we under. so just tell me how you see this playing out . well, pat, really as after mister put, because we have shared in the west beginning with the united states, that we will not get involved in this conflict. even though it is an aggressive action against a sovereign country to which in 1994 russia along with britain, the united states, in exchange for ukraine, giving up nuclear weapons, a sullen commitment to protect the border of ukraine. not to do anything against you. quick as and also a baylor roo sent to cause extra and they are broken after amendment. no matter what has happened on the western side. russia has put itself in the position of an aggressor nation if mister potent wants to stop. now, arrangements can be worked out so that as we tried back in 19 august rusher, can be

a full participant in an overall european security effort. mister potent decided you didn't want it. and he has now put himself in a situation where he damaged his country. country for a long time to come short term sanctions or one side long term isolation from the outside world. he has jamming his own people to goes through the terrible deprivations they went through in the cold war. all right, and final word over to you. brooks taken over, there has been a lot of diplomatic activity where you are, in particular in brussels. how, how do, how do nations sort of dial back? how does everybody dial back from this and what, how do you foresee this playing out over the next days and weeks i had i don't think there will be much of a weighted thing to dial back things diplomatically. that's been the domain plea of, of the western nations which has fallen on deaf ears and moscow as for the way as

for how this might play out. i won't speculate about mister britton's in game, but i will speculate about his tactics. it would make sense if he cannot conquer physically the entire country that he would probably pull back and whole the areas that he has. and then use the same tactics. the same approach that he did with the don boss, get the people in their move. some people in there in order to support him, declare them as republics, and absorbed the territories eventually into russia. i wouldn't be surprised if that was, is up his plan. all right, we'll leave it there. thank you so much for joining us. brooks taken, robert hunter and andrew bucklin over really appreciate your time with us. thank you for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al jazeera dot com for further discussion. you can go to our facebook page, that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. during the conversation on twitter handle is a james. i story myself and the whole team here and how, thanks for watching the bye. for now.

we understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world. so no matter what lucy, al jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. how does in europe, with ice caps melting in the north pole juice of climate change? china is ramping up, research and investment is a region one at one aisd explorer. china's rise physiognomy on out 0 for china in the u. s. sleep walking their way to war in the struggle over ukraine . here's the test for president joe biden. what is really trying to do is rewrite the security architecture of this, your personal united states. you sir, if you go to walking through gum at the same time,

your weekly pay on us politics and society. that's the bottom line. with this one's feared warlord during lay barriers. decade long, civil war says he's now fighting a drug epidemic the work that the former warlord joshua boy, he has done with treat children. it has attracted their help like sin, and that's protected. and in effect from public crawl situation, despite the recommendation is made by the truth and reconciliation commission for

this former warlord, liberia has become the frontline of a drug war. it cannot afford to lose. he says it's a battle he will fight out of responsibility and killed for his past crimes and for his country. ah, had i won moline site into a home with your top stories on now to sarah. russia has drawn world wide condemnation not to being accused of attacking a nuclear power plant that it seized in ukraine. fiber account at the facility in the 80 hours of friday morning. it was extinguished without any radiation spikes. russia says ukrainians, saboteurs are to blame. when a sign of global alarm about the nuclear plants seizure, the un security council scrambled together for an emergency meeting. the u. s. said russia almost caused a catastrophe, rushes ambassador dismissed. the accusations as hysterical. kristen salumi has

moved from new york ambassador for one.