then the phone that they were actually really wanting to send and also say these is automatically coming and they may need the name on cities, but they were able to score would much damage the technology have a critical role in making the game more accessible while challenges like high fees for training and tournaments remain. he believes the growing number of engine grandmaster will help bring more talent to the gain bart metal. i'll just iraq new delhi. ah. we got the headlines on al jazeera, ukraine's president, as a temporary cease fire announced by moscow is now on hold. because the violations by russian forces fighting was meant to stop in mario full unvil no vodka to allow the safe passage of civilians out of harm's way. ukraine's president of all of them are zalinski, has criticized nature's refusal to create

a no fly zone over his country. he says, the alliance will be to blame for any further debts. russia foreign minister has hit back its lensky speech, accusing him of wanting to provoke further conflict. tucker of royal for still not the landscape so unhappy with nato not interfering than that means he's hoping to resolve this conflict by involving nato. it means he's not hearing statements from european capitals, saying they won't get involved. it means he wants to provoke a conflict between nato and russia. that's the mood he's in. this mood indicates that he doesn't need negotiations with us, but that may change because of course, he's a moody person. proud of ukrainians have gathered in the city of her son in the south to protest against russia takeover of their city. it's a largest city. moscow has taken since its invasion of ukraine began 10 days ago. you french president has back the protest. more than a 1000000 people have now fled to fighting in ukraine,

and the un is warning. it could lead to the worst refugee crisis this century. thousands have been leaving from towns on the outskirts of the cranium. capital, keith. many cars have signs in their windows saying children and evacuation to avoid being targeted by russian troops, residential areas and center such as boots on earth and have been subject to intense. shelly, australia has been mourning the loss of sporting legend shane warne prime minister scott morrison says the country is bewildered by war and sudden loss and described him as one of the nation's greatest character is. and one of the kinds morrison confirmed warns family has been offered a state funeral war and died if a suspected heart attack while on holiday in thailand. he was 52 years old. thanks for watching al jazeera upfront is coming up. next, bye bye. talk to al jazeera, we do believe that the threat of an invasion of ukraine is currently the biggest

threat international peace and security. we listen, we are focusing so much on the human tearing crisis that we forget the long term development. we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on our era. as russia continues at the thought on ukraine, pause for action from the international community grow louder with the bait raging on everything from the effectiveness of sanctions to whether nato's involvement with ukraine contributed to tensions with moscow. and fears that direct action by nato could translate into war across europe. what can anything deter proven, and what, what a long war mean, not just for the people of ukraine, but for russian citizens as well. that's our discussion this week on an upfront question. the you wanted me to discuss the latest on ukraine are dr. stephanie best, former deputy assistant secretary general of nato, ducky of guinea outbox, editor in chief of russia. the new times magazine. and doctor acne agreed with

a senior fellow at the atlantic council and author of the book beyond crimea, the new russian empire. thank you all for joining me. getting let me start with you . you've got the problem for decades, so you understand better than most people. how they make decisions. we've seen weeks of warnings from the west, about an eminent invasion of ukraine trip build up along the border. and of course, diplomatic efforts to avoid the outcome that we're seeing today. in your view, was war inevitable? you know, at all there's nothing to do. so reading the crystal balls, i'm just a journalist, but i do think that which may have been pretty much lost all the time. and why did she realize that she was unable to for the well because to to provide him with the kind all for

will he wanted it is to fade back. he wanted to divide the world into him and that is fine. tasha all the full mom. so it's a problem when here i live to, to do that, she decided to stop the war. he seemed to be following the advice of very particular sets of advisers, particularly the most hawkish wing of his security council should not have to follow at any hawkish member for you secured the council, because she's fell and hugged long petition with this trial. so the way he, he's the greg did of be so we do was to craft of institution the k to be and these are the kind of

a situation of which culture organizational culture always has been based on la wireless. so i'm funny, bad for jeff metro. if you could get what she wanted to get a way to do, i'm sure to get my fault. you're not she joe. she wants to have the kind of, or that the kind of international order set sparren agreed to have with roosevelt and churchill. that's what she will. and she wants the future himself as an all day span. stephanie, in recent months, russia has repeatedly pointed the finger at nato. some of even argue that nato is at least partially responsible for the outbreak of war, arguing that it's expansion in the early 2, thousands to include former soviet countries. is that the root of today's crisis? would you agree with that assessment? no, and a surprisingly, i don't agree with that assessment. let me, let me say, 1st of all,

i mean that we do have principles and global principles, including our, the free choice of countries to determine their own security arrangements or nato didn't go around shopping and ask people to join advice. vice versa. countries like lithuania is the one error and the czech republic, poland, all these countries resort to become a member of nato because they thought it was best for their own countries. and they took a free and deliberate choice and that's number one. but number 2, i would like to stress. i also recall vividly because back then i was there, i, when we signed the strategic partnership with russia, that was back in 1997. and we established a joint permanent council. so we b, gave russia really quite a bit of se,

if i can say so on natal issues and be invited russia to work with us jointly. and we're almost 15 years we worked with russia. ah, it's and now almost unthinkable. i'm into recall, but i was there, i was part of it and i still vividly recall the many, many issues in which we work with russia m at nato, has never done anything wrong in terms of suggesting to russia that we would either reduce their or ignore their legitimate concerns, by contrast, we invited them to be with us to partner with stephanie, there are some people who would say, i agree with everything you're saying. but in the absence of nato, putin doesn't have the pretext that there would not have been an invasion apps at the pretext of nato and his concerns around nato. what do you make of that? well, i suggest is all part of thought. it's narrative i. he tried very hard and still is trying, i mean,

to basically roll back history and interpret everything which i'm talking about the past 20 years as something which ultimately constitutes sweat to what's russia. and so this is very much a narrative end ah, reactions in allied countries, basically erections around world. now make very clear that we don't buy into this narrative. we don't want to live in a world which is divided by spheres of inferences. and we go, don't want to go back as if dina has said to yell, house tile m a power play, i mean, between the big powers. so i'm afraid to say a protein has miscalculated a lot, agnew given the in his speech now in the offensive into ukraine. putin also said the operation aim to d. not so far. the country in your view is the invasion, again, really about nato, or is nato just a pretext. you know,

nato said absolutely just a pretext. there are many other pretext that booth has used and mean again, do you not if occasion, the extraordinary extraordinary statement completely detached from reality. president lensky himself is jewish. so it's very difficult to make that argument. i mean, quinton has made other arguments that ukraine is a but brotherly nation, a brotherly, slavic nation. so therefore they're gonna, you know, invaded whether ukraine likes it or not, and to support and help their brotherly nation. so i think that there are many narratives that button has tried playing out over the course of this time. and really since some since 2014 since the 1st invasion of crimea since the creation of separatist regions. and lou hans can de nafrica at the time, the pretext was that the russia languages speakers in ukraine were being discriminated against. so therefore he is going to go in and help them. there's

been many prefects, but the end of the day i think this is really for him up a project of personal ambition to try to re establish rushes influence, and control over the post soviet space i he present him. hootin has stated many times that the fall of the soviet union was the greatest catastrophic o geopolitical disaster of the 20th century. so this is, i think something he wants to reverse and have this as his legacy. as president of russia is natal was formed in 1949 ah, during the cold war, primarily, to counter potential soviet threats. ah, those the organizations very existence still hinge upon a certain kind of tension or the threat of war for motion. when we became the president back in 2001 of his 1st name was i, she said that she would like to join out. he would like russia to june. so at the

very beginning of his presidency, there was no talk about any draft from the side of the month of month. you know, i told peter, i believe back to russia and you know, he has the right to decide which nation has for i, for 70 and which nation though. so she decided that the brain that we have. 2 doesn't have this 70 right to decide who to ally with. and that's, that's it. i think that it's, it's so misleading to keep talking about made the threat. look that russian propaganda motion no longer talks about the nation propaganda machine

. now tell russian civil those that russia had to stop is for him to walk in order to prevent your grain from developing its own nuclear weapons. stephanie, that the war has put the question of natal membership for ukraine into conversation once again. it's on the table once more, despite having been repeatedly dismissed in the past. why has the idea of ukraine is the needle member always seemed so unlikely? well, event like the european union nation has not key aah for new members. so it is not just, i mean that we look at photos, pictures, and listen to the high se speeches, or we want to make sure, ne, to wants to make sure that any new and country accessing nato can actually make an a contribution. can bring to the table net or military

capabilities and shares out the same values. doesn't have any type of territorial or other related conflict. i'm afraid to say it never actually met the criteria. and there were still, and there was still quite a some work to do for the ukrainians on, on their spite. so that's lawless, i mean, the procedural aspect. but above all, there is a political aspect. and if there is one thing that i criticize, or when looking at my, my fault or employer, i think the decision taken back at the booker, i summit in 2008 was not helpful because it left georgia and ukraine with this and beauty. it was agreed the cause, there was no agreement that we would invite ukraine as well as georgia and to become member at some point, but we didn't specify date and that left 2 countries in limbo,

i thought strategically speaking, politically speaking, that was not helpful. neither for nature's course, nor for the course of the 2 countries concerned, agnew. another thing that creeds difficulty is this question of energy independence . ah, right now, europe plans to reduces dependence all russia. ah, and that is perceived by moscow as a threat. you yourself called for more sanctions on rushes nord stream to pipeline the natural gas pipeline. that would double russia, natural gas exports to europe via germany. in your view has europe's energy dependence on russia. emboldened bruton. absolutely, and i think this energy dependence also was one of the reasons put in miscalculated with this invasion. but if you look at europe today, the reality is it's at least about a 3rd. it dependent on russian gas imports. fortunately with the globalization of

the gas markets and the united states becoming a major gas producer, and l n g x border, there are more options for europe, b and importing states. but nonetheless, today they remain highly dependent. and north stream too, is a pipeline that had a big impact on the way this crisis unfolded because the north stream to pipeline, directly from russia to germany, once it was completed, completed today, it's not certified and not operation. and hopefully it won't become so. but once it was completed, it allowed you russia to bypass the ukrainian gas pipeline system, which was one of the primary means of sending gas from russia to europe. and now that there is an alternative route, there was essentially this created a green light for food. and government to invade ukraine and to if damage but that pipeline in the process, if you know there was nothing holding back from outright war and damaging the

pipeline system because there was a belief that now they'll have an alternative pipeline system. so this gap dependence oil dependence really has a direct links with this current war in ukraine. let's talk a bit about sanctions. if there's been a lot of debate over the impact of sanctions on russia. many of expressed concern that the effects of sanctions are more likely to be felt by ordinary russian citizens rather than by the powerful, by the state itself. our sanction the right choice. i'm not sure that i want to answer this question because the political fines, as they would say, yeah, i think that these crash sanctions are going to to clean. so press what problem and we'll put in and may lead to the fleet over daily . and change of the however, the kind of the financials that i have been,

i have been imposed on russia. they, in fact, a lot of my fellow citizens, we just yesterday before, yesterday woke up in a totally new world. you country. and my in fact, you know, life looks ugly. a lot of been sold. now, people are trying to withdraw currency dollars and euro's and they need to be difficult. now, ready? not clear how russians are going to well rational by going to why they're going to need to come back maintainance or for their ultima bias. but i have a lot of problems that we're going to face pretty soon. however,

i hate to talk about that because i feel so shame about what my country is doing not doing right now. so the neighboring country too. i see pictures from the web, but i know that hundreds and thousands of greens each day or you know, they get to the beautiful city. i've travelled around your brain time when a game i know this country with the will. i love it. in fact, my grandma family was from crane and i see what russian russian new file and russian born i'm doing to hard to you to to should add to what do you and i'm terrified, but this is done by the army which i as

a taxpayer, as a federal level, they're asking for the ration i pay for that. and that makes me feel is shamed and you know and know functions are good. now, if puts him and his people, i'm not going to be punished for the kind of path that they did to that they had been doing to grain and to europe in general. listen way in europe was found out in 19391939. that was the year when the vote was to start. i couldn't believe that i live in the country, which will of 25000000 people through the world war 2. and these very country way each piece of land is somebody is great. this country

started to war and killing people. right now, dren century, europe. it's just impossible to conquer, have stephanie. earlier this week, switzerland announced that it would freeze russian held financial assets in the country, totaling more than $11000000000.00. the big number that's according to the new york times. that's a rather shocking move, given switzerland's long history of neutrality. what, what does that kind of move tell us? it tells me that the global communities really are really running around one point, which is to, to really express their opposition, their frustration, derringer or de outburst with regard to what's ongoing and ukraine, even smaller countries neutral countries like so. as a lend,

you mentioned half joined to chorus, i am must admit, i feel a little bit and embezzlement about it. on one hand, i think it's absolutely good and important that the international community comes together from various sectors, countries, tech sector, sports cultures, you name it to express at their opposition, but the more we do it, the more we do it, the more i fear. i mean, we corner president twitching considerably and if he were to put ourselves into his shoes and consider policy options, what is it i mean that can actually on the how can move forward? what is his exit strategy? i feel, i mean, that we ourselves need to also get and smarter and develop a strategy. how to actually manage sachi, hooting regime under global pressure. i think that's that question, which is on the table now for policy makers across the board. how do we manage that

ag net? i'm thinking about what jenny says about. the kind of enormity of the moment. she's making comparisons to 1939. ah, the push that stephanie is talking about from the global community is part of the response to this moment. what you see is the proper global response, the proper type of pressure, switch them and gives one model of it. but what do you see is the kind of broaders response that you would expect from the global community? well, one specific thing i would like to see, particularly in europe is that and it's going to be difficult to understand, but it's the move that europe will have to make. at some point, it's essentially sanctioning russian sources of energy, russian, oil, and gas. it's again, not easy to achieve because europe is dependent on this, but there are global markets. they may have to pay more. but if you look at it today, essentially the money that europe, spencer, or send to russia,

if for oil and gas imports, this is essentially the russian military budget. so if you want to cut off the russian military budget, one of the primary things you could do is really start to get serious and start thinking russian oil and gas. i think 1st stopping the north stream to pipeline m, even stopping the operations of north street one pipeline. and i think germany in this last week has really had an epiphany. they really started reexamining. their policy in germany is europe's largest gas market. largest client of gas from so the move they make will have a big difference. and i've also seen changes in turkey as well. jerky is the 2nd largest market for gas brom in the, in, within the european context. and with the decision of prison, an earth on to close the boss for

a straight to russia and military ship movement is a step in the positive direction. in guinea, we've seen thousands of russians marching in anti war protests. we've even seen some unexpected high profile figures inside of russia speaking out against the war . is there any descent in your view with important inner circle or even within his government? for what's happening right now? i have no doubt that people who are trying to oppose the war, especially those in the, on the economy on the financial side of the russian government. because basically the russian economy will been piece of in the math of several one. so the situation is extremely difficult. an rush, hop coming through frozen. so central bank is unable to interfere,

therefore are actually current last thought at the santa look. it means that prices for all food of what that commodities will go significantly. and those where poor will become much, much for russian young people, they're leaving the country on mass. they just running outside the country, ration reach, people rational, middle the also, or everybody is trying to find a way to get out of russia. 6000 people with the pain as they to 5 in different pro, across the country. i, my publication to you times go to blog because, you know, russian got one believes that we shouldn't use the word war or the there are no

more, no invasion. no, i can, so for 3 is just some, some operation that we soon come back against the neighboring country. the only independent radio station left f m. i also was taken down by the russian. that was the only independent tv channel to the rain was taken down by the russian government as well. it's as being cheap for the majority of reporters decided to leave the country. i mean, if you ever really do have the for, for my assumption indeed, and we'll continue to cover this or every step of the way, stephanie, if jenny agnew, thank you so much for joining me on of that's our show up front. we'll be back next week.

the latest news as it breaks, authorities tell us the brutal violence like this one in the honduran capital are just the tip of the iceberg in a far more complex security situation with detailed coverage. this coastal village in albany is one of the worst areas here in the province of ball, from around the world. things seem very normal in the city. people are still going to work or to school the restaurant, a, an app that sees for the blind and a robotic arm for the disabled. a young australian engineer is inventing tools to help people gain independence or side of that will put the ability to recognize objects on the firm so that people with limited vision will be able to

recognize everyday objects. women make science, bravo girls. episode for on al jazeera, the important thing if you were walking around in beirut was not to be in the line of fire from the holiday. paula, we heard gunshots. i was the 1st one to flee the hotel. the battle lasted 3 days and 3 nights and there were no prisoners at the in control how many in and you control the region around. and that's why it is such a bloody battle. an icon of conflict at the heart of the lebanese civil war, beirut, holiday in war. how towels on al jazeera ah ah, ah

ah ah. ready ready this is al jazeera ah hello, i'm rob matheson and this is the news, our life from doha, with extensive coverage of russia's war in ukraine. coming up in the next 60 minutes. evacuations in the ukrainian city of mario paul, a put on hold with claims a temporary cease fire deals being via.