to be different from everything that we've had pulling past 1420 years, something different. thank you very it. up with my divides something different seems a more see, i'm sure she me, as most julian so voted for body to me. i'm more socially equal inclusive country. that is what he is promising. again, he is just starting, but he is starting with a lot of you can see a public support ah tougher could, should have a headlines here at al jazeera, russia has expanded its offensive into western ukraine, attacking 3 cities, including to me, pro desperate conditions continue in car called khaki van mario pole. meanwhile, the u. s. and e, you have escalated sanctions, taking more steps to an old trade with russia. the questions remain over the safety of ukraine's nuclear power sites. ukraine's regulator says electricity supply to which a novel has not been restored despite russian officials sang. it was reconnected on

thursday. ukraine says russian soldiers of kid that the mayor of military paula city, in the southeast, the government released this security camera footage, which it says shows the abduction of ivan federal at the top of the screen alone, us boot gray m. here we are in ukraine. we are in europe last. we have a democracy here. therefore, the kidnapping of the mayor of mela. topple is a crime, probably not only against a specific person, for the cause, not only against a specific community, and not only against ukraine awards. and this is a crime against democracy. and the u. s. is accused russia of using a un security council meeting to spread lies and disinformation bass, belinda thomas greenfield, said russia is playing out to potential 4th flag operation where it fabricates allegations about biological weapons against ukraine in order to justify retaliation. russia's calling for this meeting is a potential false flag effort in action. exactly the kind we have been warning

about, including from secretary berlington here in the security council last month. russia has a track record of falsely accusing other countries of the very violations that russia itself is perpetrating. and given that and consistent with our previous statements, we have serious concerns that russia may be planning to use chemical or biological agents against the ukrainian people. matter. the company that owns facebook and instagram could soon be bound in russia as an extremist organization. the move is in response to facebook announcing, but it's relaxing its rules on calls for violence is now a partial exception. when the target is russian troops in ukraine. so those are the headlines and he's continues here now to 0 after upfront stations than to watching life. when i think of my niger, i think of potential when i think of potential,

i think what would be, what is not. i think of young people literally take them to the end and do something that they can be part of. tell me the possible. i think it on the challenge over isn't a child in the country, alex. my name is ben. gotcha. so, and this is my a, my, my dear analogy there, ah, since russia invaded ukraine, the world has responded with some of the most aggressive sanctions in history. but as refugees fleeing and civilian death, tolls mount summer asking if there are enough that conversation is coming up. but 1st, over 2000000 refugees of ukraine at the start of rushes invasion. what the u. s. has called the biggest movement of people in europe since world war 2. countries have opened up their borders, ukrainian refugees. but any say this fans in sharp contrast to the harsh border restrictions that african asian n middle eastern silent speakers have been facing for years. why the discrepancy

and treatment the joining us to discuss the ukrainian refugee crisis are china devine williams, head of global communications at you, and hcr, who's been on the ground on the ukrainian border with neighboring countries to join us from budapest and kate white emergency program manager with doctors without borders in geneva. thank you both for joining me on upfront china, i'll start with you. you and hcr is on the ground meeting refugees from ukraine at the border of neighboring countries. can you talk to us a little bit about the situation on the ground, what refugees have been facing, and how the organization has been responding to it? yet fortunately, we've had a presence both inside ukraine and in the neighboring mania and mal dove and poland, and also here and hungry. the situation is right now, it's very well organized in terms of the reception of refugees. but the, the clear,

the clear tragedy and the impacts on the hundreds of thousands of refugees that are arriving every day is, is so visible. we're seeing an immense outpouring of support for ukrainian refugees right now. doctors without borders also has a presence in ukraine, and your teams are witnessing the impact of the conflict on civilians. one of the biggest needs right now in terms of support i think in terms of support and what i came to saying it, it varies quite dramatically. depending upon where in the country you are teams in the east, around marian pole right now. basically just trying to see why i've given that being completely cut off. there's no water, there's no electricity there running out of food. so really there, it's about safe passage for those who need to be able to flee,

and ensuring that she mediterranean and medical supplies can come into the city. further west in the country, we're seeing more indirect and direct consequences of the war in terms of from a health perspective, trauma patients that really creating a significant burden on the remaining functional health structures. and then be on that there multiple needs in regards to pre existing conditions of people that are being exasperated because they no longer have access to health services. china, what kind of challenges do you anticipate refugees will be facing in the coming months? we know that the situation is developing very quickly on the ground. i think one of the things that we're most concerned about is that the people that are arriving now are the ones who have means they have resources. they have family, they have connections,

either in the neighboring countries or further afield. what we're really worried about is, but the people who have not crossed yet are the ones that will be more at risk. we're talking about refugees who will be elderly or living with disabilities. we're also talking about people who probably have left in terms of resources and ability to move out. now, the other issue that we cannot avoid, and this will carry on to the next month, is that every single refugee family that comes across are separated from love, one phase, left loved ones and family members behind. and this will weigh very heavily on the way that we are able to respond to their needs. in the coming months, kate headlines are proclaiming that europe has opened its doors to ukrainian refugees, and they quote, you nations unanimously agreed to accept ukrainian refugees for 3 years without going through a silent process. now while we can agree that these are positive moves to be sure, why have the door's been shut to african asian and middle eastern asylum seekers

for so long? that's a very, very good question that i not sure i am able or cold my to answer, but indeed in terms of, of what we've seen are metrics on frontier responding in various countries to day here at cherry to refugee crisis. this is dramatic, wrote to her from how it has left in the past. china, there are some pretty stark shifts. for example, just a few years ago, a hungarian prime minister victor orbit was building barbed wire fences and barriers to keep refugees out. creating teams of border hunters, border hunters to stop asylum seekers and said, quote, for us migration is a poison, we don't need it and won't swallow it now. his welcoming ukrainian refugees in with open arms. similarly, poland began constructing a wall to prevent asylum seekers from entering the country through its border with

bell roofs, an area where at least a dozen asylum seekers froze to death. this past winter, now they're building a rail link to ukraine to help refugees enter poland. i want to keep building on this route. what do you think is behind the shift? not just in rhetoric, but also in practice. i think one thing that is critical here and there is, there is nothing positive that is coming out of this for. but i think one thing that we are focusing on is that this is an opportunity to shift this narrative to say that that is shared the responsibility of welcoming and supporting refugees is manageable. we are able to do this. european countries and international community overall is able to do this. the other thing that i've seen here and i was at the airway station today, here in budapest, and i saw 2 trains arrive filled with refugees from ukraine. and many of them were

actually 3rd country nationals. so a lot of students from africa, i spoke to several from tons in the, from congo and from ethiopia. they also were saying, look right now ukraine is our home. we were, you know, one of them was just about 6 months away from graduating. so they're, they're really unsure whether or not they want to try to wait and see if they can go back and finish their studies. and i think what we've seen and hungry is that they're saying, any one coming from ukraine right now, we consider fiji and they're being treated exactly the same. which as you say is, is something that we welcome china. there are many africans in south asians, currently living in ukraine who have faith, significant delays, or even been completely blocked from leaving the country for example. and that during national father of 3 said he and his family were asked to give up their seats on a cross border bus, out of ukraine with ukrainian military officer saying,

no blacks allowed. can you speak about what black and brown residents are facing when they try to flee this war? i think in terms of you and hcr position, we've made it very clear. there can be no discrimination based on nationality of miss city or race. people that are fleeing from ukraine, regardless of their nationality or background, are fleeing the same conflict, and they deserve the same right to access asylum and to have have safety. that said, in terms of what's happening inside ukraine, it's very difficult for us to assess. we have, like you heard these incidents, seen these reports, and we followed up both inside ukraine and in the neighboring countries to, to work with the governments to make sure that these are not policies. and that

they are not going to be replicated. and so far we do have assurances on both sides that, that anyone who is trying to escape the war and ukraine will be allowed to do so. and we'll have safe dan asylum on the other side. kate, in doctors without borders, doing anything to help these racialized refugees. so for us, we treat people regardless of race, ethnicity, or background. but what we're seeing more broadly in ukraine itself is a difficulty for population as a whole. to play, particularly for areas in the east where cities are becoming age and populations are struggling to move out and off in terms of the services that are being provided in the country around the the population can be some of the

most vulnerable and where trying as hard as we can to follow and to look into this because it's, it's extremely difficult at the moment though to track what happens to people once they cost to florida. they are sandy, $12.00 days and reception centers the whole moving on site. this is a early dice when kate is there in any need for more targeted response. it seems that the, you and hcr and doctors without borders has effectively taken a color blind approach saying, whoever you are, if your needs were going to help. but if there is a, a disproportionate number of racialized people being mistreated, being pushed off of buses being denied access to refuge. might there be a need for these organizations to actually over correct for that by targeting these racialized groups nor indeed. so when we look at populations in

a context, what we are looking at is what services are provided and who are the most vulnerable and we are in a similar position to, to china, and you and hcr in a way that was we him, many of the reports and we hear it in the news in terms of what our teams are able to see right now. we're not actually able to say a systematic case of discrimination. however, given that it is so widely recorded, it is one of the things that we're looking at doing in terms of supporting because then that becomes an extremely marginalized population without the same access to the system that others have. china. we've also seen the media, including an al jazeera presenter come under fire for the way that they have described, ukrainian refugees compared to other asylum seekers. some of the worst examples include reporters and commentators saying things like ukraine, unlike iraq and afghanistan is civilized in that ukrainians have blue eyes and

blonde hair. how do these dehumanizing descriptions affect how people not just you, but ultimately treat asylum seekers? absolutely. i'm actually glad you brought that up, mark, because i think the way that we talk about refugees in general across the media has it's become such a negative thing. refugee has become such a negative word, and yet i think maybe the one thing that we're learning in this crisis is that absolutely anybody can become a refugee. and, and i have to say one of the journalists that i spoke to recently shed a similar thing. and i, i did ask him, so are you saying that if a refugee who looks like me or who looks like somebody from africa, are you saying that this is different? and, and i did, i think it's important that all of us actually face this. we talk about this and we

talk about this difference. now what i can say is that if anything, this is showing that life is very fragile and it can change in a matter of minutes. i've met so many people in the last week along the border who literally had 15 minutes to decide what to take. because the shelling started getting so bad or so close that they decided instantly like we have to go and we have to go now. and so i think the one thing that we can try to do is not so much talk about how everybody is like us, but really talk about how we all live in a world that is very vulnerable and very fragile. and that can turn on its head and, and so hopefully that will allow us to have a bit more compassion and to, to really be a bit more open about how we think about displacement overall. i want to thank you

both china and kate, for joining me on upfront the since rushes invasion of ukraine on february 24th countries around the world have respond with sweeping sanctions. nato countries fearing that any kind of military engagement in the conflict could trigger a fully fledged war with the rest of europe and its allies have opted for an economic offensive. instead, countries around the world have frozen russian assets. they bard, the majority of russia banks from the swift international payment system and the function russian oligarchy, and more new restrictions intended to cripple the russian economy are being announced on a near daily basis. and the rules value has plummeted with economic forecasters predicting the russian economy will shrink by 7 to 15 percent this year. but will be aggressive sanctions be enough to stop russia's war and ukraine. and what impact are they likely to have in russia and across the world?

joining me to discuss this is sir gay, gory if economist and scientific director of the master and ph. d programs and economics as the poll paris. thank you so much for joining me on. upfront. russian president vladimir putin has called the western sanctions on russia quote, akin to a declaration of war. meanwhile, the u. s. and the u. r. escalating sanctions including a band from the u. s. this week on russian oil and natural gas imports. and yet s the 1000000000 casualties. ukraine continue to arrive. many are thing that the sanctions actually aren't even enough. where you stand on that i do think that sanctions are not enough in the sense that behavior has not changed when you put in the dominant down on the war. and initially the sanctions where a deterrent then their instrument to change behavior. and now the situation is changing and the sense that put in says, i will not stop, i will bomb the ukrainian cities. i will try to capture keith and change the

government in ukraine even though occasionally says no, it's not my goal. but, but overall, overall, right now, the sanctions are to increase cost for russian economy for mr. podium and make sure he doesn't have enough financial resources to continue the war. now mister jim has to france, he has unhappy rations and all who are hit by the sanctions. who would like to protest against the war because the war is actually quite unpopular. it is not a provoked war. it's written by them would say war of choice. and the front in ukraine, so he knew a lot of money to pay his policemen in russia to be the protest us to base. he's a proponent is to convince whoever can be convinced that this is a just war and defensive war. and then of course, to pay his soldiers in ukraine and in order to make sure that he doesn't have enough money, indeed us has now hit the most important source of currency and budget revenues,

which is oil experts. and yes is not a big important question. oil, but u. s. has been joined by the private sector. this is very important to understand. private companies like shall or be, or myers, do not have to stop buying russian oil and transport international. but they do, they, they have actually self imposed the sanctions on russian oil, which is now become in toxic for reputational reasons. and in that sense, right now, russian oil exports are dropped it. and therefore russia is being de, after those resources. but there is not always the bay that europe should jain american embargo in that would really hit him hard because europe is the main market for an oil and gas. the robot now worth less than one us penny. we've seen long lines of russians waiting for a tim machines. we've seen predictions that russian inflation will hit up to 17

percent this year. and people are stocking up on medicines about 55 percent of which are imported. do you believe that the hardships that are being imposed on ordinary russians as a result of the sanctions will be effective if anything in fueling descent against prudent or is his hold on power so strong that it, that it won't matter. so he just like this change of behavior or get replaced, there were 2 sources, palace school by the lead or, and did by mass protests when the policemen don't want to shoot. and so mister boone is afraid of both elite, very unhappy. imagine you've been building a company for 20 or 30 years and has destroyed in the one week, which for example, has happened to many russian businesses now with the population. as you rightly said, population, i'm happy as well. but then again, mr. put in this mark here, he plays divide and rule with the leave and threatens jayden a poison in them. but also he invest

a lot and brainwashing the population saying you're suffering. but this is becoming aggression by the west. and we are, you mustn't, we are a victim or he also invest in my right bullies. and so you are unhappy by the fact that you are a deposits are frozen and you cannot afford the medicines. and i think that your point pinpointed the family very, very important issue, because for many russians, the main to expect consumer expenditure of food and medicines and medicines that are important. and whichever are not important, it are also priced to reflect the global price of medicine. and so in that sense, we'll russians are now going below the poverty line. but can they protest against that down? so it's not because the police is still well paid and happy to be on the professors . and so unless mr. borton is deprived of fiscal revenue, which is better dollars in the end of the day, he will double down. another piece of this is the impact of economic sanctions,

not just on russia, but on the broader global arrangement of power and global economic circumstance. the wall street journal recently predicted bit sanctions will have the biggest impact on the global economy of any such moves since 1945 because of the sheer size, of course, of the russian economy were already thing fuel prices rise in the e u. and in the united states, the question though, for many, including myself, is, is the price of sanctions worth the cost that they will have for the rest of the world. well, as they say in russia, remember those happy pandemic times, right? so this is much bigger than cobit, this is in europe. people think about this as 1939, and then get elevated. now we have more than to meet in the fugitives from ukraine . that's bigger than that if you'd cry because of 2015, 2016, and the expected number as of today's 5000000. this is the biggest refugee crisis

in europe since 945. and on top of that, mr. podium have nuclear weapons and so in that sense, in that sense, it's really a historic moment, which is somewhat similar and $939.00. and so a lot of countries say whatever the price of sanctions, we need to stop this aggressor because these aggressor is not going to be used in this india. this is true because put in a way to ukraine in 2014. and people thought, well, he's got what he want it. that's fine. he'll go back and he'll never invade us again. but what has happened? the problem is, if you are a piece of glass or like an antique 3, you may get another aggression and he has another aggression and that's why they were trying to fight this battle. now you are right, the people talk too much about the pain of higher oil and gas prices for europe. but it's going to be a much bigger pain for developing countries which don't have such

a big corporate access to that market. and on top of the oil, that is also grain because both russia, ukraine, our biggest exporters of grain and those experts will because it opted for sure. so things like things like oil prices, brain prices, some other things. and of course, this must be pretty few gene flows. these are not, not outcomes. we would love to see. but the alternative is that there'll be more crisis like this because as i said, mr. william has shown he doesn't like piece. he prefers war to ation trade investment. do you believe that the international community is able to offer moscow in exit strategy from the crisis? and if so, what does it look like? so they'll be in negotiation at some point when mr. put in or how the resources and cannot continue his offense if any more. and that will be some kind initiation. and indeed mr. put in a will probably want to come back to russian voters and say we want. and so this is,

this is a big question. how to define this victory? ukraine will never, it was nice and the station of crimea, or independence of than yes, going to ask if we said we didn't graphs more or less, ukraine will not recognize that this land is not ukrainian anymore. but what may happen is a frozen conflict and the factor, a patient, part of the ukrainian theory thing. and depending on the ukrainian, the resistance, which is of course beyond belief, it's merely really brave. these gram of land may be big or small. we don't know how much mr, which will be able to progress how much existence he will see. maybe he will be pushed back to pre war line of separation life of light line of conflict. but this is, this is something which is very hard to predict. another think which is happening is outside of fresh russians actually say this is not our war. and we will want to

tell the whole world that mr. newton doesn't really present fashion. and that is also something that will help to push mr. put in back as well. we, for example, establish the fundraising initiative, simply called through russia, that through russia, where we, we, russians abroad, fundraise for ukraine, refugees, to show that we don't share him with mister, put him thus, we don't believe that he kill in ukrainians in our name is, is he is something we should be blamed for, so we don't remain silent and we will help ukrainians who suffer from mr. put him and they hold that ukrainians will be able to defend their country. okay, great. thank you so much for joining me on up front. thank you. thank you mark that . our show upfront will be back. the

lazarus, the home of jesus christ, his long drawn pilgrims and visitors from around the world. hundreds of years. it's old city rang to the sounds of shopkeepers and crofts. people. this entry though sounds of dwindled, a handful of businesses struggling on but hearing that splashes of color shows signs of a fight back. resigns obese danny decided to renovate an old warehouse and to work and live in the old city with a mission. me and another person opens that their work, that kid he was taught here organically and open. my young palestinian israeli designers and entrepreneurs have been moving in, inspired by earlier artists to let them all at once. they were 450 businesses operating in the old city. now they're just 50. the old cities always be in the heart of nazareth. now

a growing group of residence wants to get it beating again. it will come back because the city still have very much for oh, use use unit, and 80 birds are at risk of extinction. human ambitious plan to rid the nation of if some friendly site. 11 east event, the guy on al jazeera, what we do at al serra is try to balance this story and leave the people who allow us into their lives, dignity, humanity, talk to al jazeera. we ask, do you 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 humanitarian crisis that we forget the long term development. we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on al jazeera, unprompted and uninterrupted discussions. from

a london broadcast center on. ah, blue russia expands, it's offensive in ukraine without a strike saw new targets in the east and west. ah, lo, i'm sammy's a dan. this is al jazeera alive from dell hall. so coming up, bracing for all out assault to 1000000 people, put their faith in ukrainian defenses was russian forces re group around the capitol. we're not going to give any more air time to the.