home orders echoed those presidents has announced an end. the corona virus restrictions on public and private gatherings get more lasso, said 85 percent of the population. about 5 years old has been vaccinated. the government says new infections and covet 19 related death fall, and national travelers are still required to show proof of vaccination or negative coverage. 19 test. ah, i take you through some of the headlines here now just 0. now. 10 humanitarian color. those are open in ukraine to allow civilians to flee cities, including mario polk, if and levant several previous attempts at opening humanitarian corals and ukraine failed. russia's defense ministry says it's been destroying ukrainian military vehicles with high precision weapons. it also says it's used hypersonic missiles

for the 1st time since the conflict began. of this cannot be independently verified . was the local martha. i'm forces of the russian federation continued their special operation. on march 18, the degradation massage system destroyed a large underground warehouse storing ammunition of the green troops. and you want to frank has greed and russian forces have reportedly entered mary opal. the southern port city has been devastated by weeks of russian bombardment and thousands are still trapped back. civilians in odessa are sheltering in old mines. is the city braces fund invasion. their russian warships have been shouting the suburbs of the whole city, home to more than a 1000000 people, ukraine's president involved to me as an sky criticized russia for glorifying the invasion that the moscow stadium ronnie on friday. ski says it's in everyone's interest to begin meaningful peace tours and avoid high losses in the war.

us president joe biden has worn chinese leaders. she ging ping, they'll be consequences if aging provides material support the russian forces, attacking ukraine for the to spoke on a video call from a 2 hours on friday. china has refused to condemn russia's invasion of president. she did say the fighting in ukraine is in no one's interest. theory is frozen by shot of asset has visited the united arab emirates. it's his 1st trip to an our country since the war began in 2011. the us state department called the visit profoundly disappointing. china has reported its 1st cove in 19 deaths in more than a year. the 2 fatalities were in gillian province. it's inside story. now . we understand the differences and similarities of

cultures across the world. so no matter where you core hand out 0 will bring you the news and current affairs that mattie al jazeera has russia is war in ukraine, stoles russian misses an artillery continue to bombard several cities, but none have been captured after almost a month of fighting. so what is the kremlin military strategy and can its objectives be achieved? this is inside stored. ah hello and welcome to the program. i'm fully back table. the war in ukraine, which russia hoped, would be over within days, is now into it's 4th week. russian tanks and military convoys remain at

a standstill outside the capital. keith, the kremlin, has yet to capture any of ukraine's biggest cities. despite attacks by land, sea, and air, they've targeted mainly residential areas throughout the week, as well as an outpouring of popular support for ukrainians, advanced weapons and aid from nato countries and others are helping stall rushes advance. despite the battle ground setbacks, russian president vladimir putin has shown little sign of relenting rob mcbride reports from live if. if vladimir putin of russia had early hopes of his russian forces, achieving magnificent victories over the ukrainian army of them being welcomed into ukrainian towns and cities or by populations. glad to see russian forces here. then those hopes are quickly disappearing. just as the snows and frosts are giving way too, as spring here in eastern europe and time is not on the side of the russians,

and many of the forces that came down from the north have been largely bogged down on a long columns in our roads. in the north of the country or from the south, we have more success being found by better equipped units coming up from the crimea . as that may be our better trained and better motivated that have seen victories against ukrainian forces falling back. but the russians have found that in the towns and cities they have taken over, they are still facing a strong resistance from people who simply do not want them there. and time is not on the side of the russians, as putin becomes more of a pariah in the eyes of the. busy world president j. lensky of the ukraine. his stature seems to grow by the day, and the longer that the russian forces are bogged down the more vulnerable they are, to the growing resistance and strength of the rig. ukrainian military fed by recruits from home by volunteers from abroad. and of course,

all now using increasing amounts of this sophisticated military hardware from the west. the anti tank missiles, the anti aircraft missiles, all of them increasingly targeted now at russian forces. rob mcbride, for inside story ah, or less now bringing our guests for today's inside story in keys. we have alexi heron, who is a professor of politics at keith, more healer academy. he's also the head of re, at the democratic initiative foundation thinktank in london. anna mad fever, an expert on russia and duration affairs. she is also the author of through times of trouble conflict in southeastern ukraine, explained from within. and in washington, dc, we're joined by doug crane. he is an assistant director at the eurasia center of the atlantic council that cus thinktank. welcome to your thank you for being with us on inside story alexei in key. let me start with you. if you could tell us about

the situation on the ground. ah, as this conflict enters its 4th week, are we seeing a change in russia strategy since the initial invasion? well, 1st of all, i would like to, well, basically your correspondent, the describe the situation quite correctly. so rational forces stole, they exhausted their demoralize. and in this situation, what groceries doing, they are starting to kill, to kill civilians, to shell civilian objects. and there's many evidence also a lot of the do a lot of for those, they do not spare maternity houses for children, hospitals, and other places. they are blocking duplication corridors. they are preventing humanitarian convoys to the besieged scene is like hurricane or muddy hooper. and actually russians were saying that they are going to liberate russian speakers

. they turned around and speaking seat is light, car, q, and money will in a total in destroy, it boomed and destroyed. so this is a debt now, over russia to intimidate, doing them in the severest, to intimidates a vest, to intimidate ukraine and to intimate the as a world community. it was the threat of nuclear war. right? so by the way, i would like, i would like to, excuse me, i would like to actually, while i am talking to use it is in a alarm. so people, it's necessary for people to go to 0 bomb shelter. and about 2 days ago i residential place, just one kilometer from me, was hit by russians near i did at the end and that the bombings have been it could have become frequent in recent days. in keith, as we seen and heard my correspondence on the ground. lexi,

thank you for telling us about the situation now. russia has denied, of course targeting civilians. let me come to you and i am at viva. in then, a british military intelligence has said, russia's invasion has largely stoled on all fronts, with russian forces making minimal progress on land sea or in recent days. but president putin has again denied this, saying that the operation is going to plan well. what is the reality of the situation as you see it? yes, i would like to say i'm torn exceed out. i have a full support and sympathy with light and we are of course, very sad them and choked with. so please accept them as kind of hotmail. i was all to, to think it is all of which in a past, present the brave. he cannot mountain the open leasing people on the day when that

is this huge concert in moscow showing so that, that it won't war effort unsafe actually, you know, my strategy has been so he has present the brain from it's not it's out of question, but i don't think that we can make any final assessments and say that this is something which is definite. normally they would have been several bethel plants, several operations, maybe some of them will be more believe to go with a little bit of military pressure. some of it was more kind of combination and so with would become pool or assault. so put in a has chosen the high risk strategy, but it does not mean the other strategies don't exist. what does normal pattern of behavior is 1st, to pissed, the opponent, but typically militarily economical,

whatever means wait for a spawns everly, this response, pause, and then take the next step. now we are seeing that kind of pause and pollution stage. he is also thinking how things would progress before the next kind of strategy p activate. ok. so i, you say we're in the pause and evaluation phase of this a russian strategy, doug crane. what are your thoughts? well, what do you make of this strategy? we're seeing a shift towards a great a use of artillery and miss on strikes again. city such as chris on car cave and mary paul of course, which has been besieged. what does that say to you about? what is to come next in the conflict? sure, thank you. and in 1st i want to echo anissa words alexi. i wish you nothing but at safety right now. and i hope that you're ok. it's incredible that you're joining us as air raid sirens are going around you. i wish you nothing but safety as,

as for russia strategy right now, it seems like what alexi had mentioned before the attempt to intimidate ukrainians with massive bombardment and shelling of cities and civilian targets is spot on. i think that we can all recognize by now that ukrainians are not going to surrender to russian domination. so even if russian forces were a bit more effective in their campaigns and were able to seize major cities like yours, i think that we can see now they would not be able to hold them so easily. we already see and see like your son, where occupiers are being met by demonstrators ukrainian operations forces us special operations forces are also waging a significant operations. you know, they recently rescued the captured merit, political and, and fried him. so these attempts to bomb civilian targets such as the mario ball feeder, which was bomb, does this week, where 1000 civilians whiting there. these are attempts to try to talents of

ukrainian people and physically eradicate any resistance, right? we'll see though that, that, that's not going to be so effective and not say the strength of the ukrainian resistance has certainly caught many people by surprise, including the russians. what do you think has worked to their advantage? well, look, this is surprise only for those who, who do not know ukraine didn't for there is also a pool in the ukraine who didn't follow events in the ukraine and who was so called fortune understand us believe the those who believed in the russian mis boat everything which was done by russia since 2014 because a, you know, ukrainian better. it grew in 2014 after the 1st russian of ukraine. and let me in mind that that set time ukraine was thought of a non block country official and russia wally the agreement. so it increased

ukrainian patriotism, which includes not only ukrainians, but also ethnic russians or jews. and as it groups which are in the ukraine, so also bulls shows that ukrainians are going to resist agreeing. an army was significantly transformed since 2014, but put him apparently he didn't want to believe it. you know, this is all the decision making in the ship state. nobody is willing to submit human heal situation on the ground. so put a miscalculate that he saw the us, he saw the ukrainians would be happy to meet the russian soldiers. he misunderstood and miscalculated ukrainian. army ukrainians to side, and he also miscalculated for international support to ukraine as well. right.

interesting. you say that i know you said before that we are in the past about a past phase of this strategy. now the russian strategy, do you think we are going to see a significant shift of this strategy moving forward and well the ukrainians be able to maintain an active defensive military effort which have been able to do so until now? well, the last part of your question is really, i think has been answered by on say i can tell you from my perspective, we need to take the peace negotiations direct and dish between ukrainian or russian psych seriously, we should not dismiss them. we should not be treating them with skepticism or put in as all was a lie, all was in the end and in some kind of peace deal. this soon. it and some

peace deal. the better for the people of your credit. so full support for negotiations. they have been helpful once for both sides. we do not want to quote them too much of them. let them do their job. we need to take it seriously. they probably have to be some compromised cranial slate as well. so let's, let's happening. i mean, the bombardment continues a seizure variable continue, so it's hard not to be skeptical about whether the talks can achieve anything. i have a different course and i studied conflicts and was for almost 30 years of my profession like we bill not have that kind of ideal piece which comes from yet. everybody comes down, sitting down to medication table, takes out a book, but you're really making up. there was no real piece. comes out of the what it

comes from within the war. and that's if we look at was if you got sloppy how croatia and so they made peace well through the force of arms yet craner, so have to be displaced, lead here, but india to come to make peace. and this piece is lucky. so should not be trying to say that this will be some kind of priest t, p 's deal we're every will be, is horribly civilized with each other right now or just sit down applauding. it will be a massive groups. ok, what that a message, what? well, let's take a look at rushes, recent military operations and how they compared to this current, one in ukraine. russia's entry into serious civil war in 2015. for example. help turned the tide in president bush halifax, favor. russian force has relied heavily on intense bombing and indiscriminate air

attacks against residential areas. in 1999 russian forces invaded chechnya for the 2nd time in 5 years. then they shifted towards great a use of artillery and messiah strikes against major cities. and they also cut off supply lines between cities. the capital of grossey was leveled in the fighting 20 years earlier. the then soviet union invaded neighboring afghanistan in an attempt to reinforce a new pro soviet regime in cavil. the soviets counted on a short term military operation, but never sent enough soldiers to deal with stiff resistance by afghans and thousands of foreign fighters. a dog. let me come to you and ask you about, ah, you know, the scale of russia's military involvement in ukraine compared to a, 1st of all the entire capacity of russian forces. and compared to these recent conflicts without syria or even going as far back as the afghanistan war. how has russia fed? what, what is different this time around for them?

so vis warren ukraine is perhaps more similar to soviet involvement nath dana span and russia's wars in chechnya. ah, then compared to involvement syria, it's similar to syria in the fact that they are leveling cities in committing serious atrocities against civilians. ah, but it's different from that because there's no, sir, it did not have a son, major ground campaigns from the russian forces. i'm afghan a stand in chechnya, where long grinding wars against insurgencies eventually that lasted for years and, and sucked up a major drain from a mosque. s forces. this is something that unfortunate while, while it's still very early in ukraine, this war is only entered. it's 4th week. now, i think that all indications point to that this is something that could stretch on for quite some time. we've already seen that russia's forces are inadequate for what they're trying to accomplish in ukraine. that's why syria is sending something

like 40000 syrian troops to assist them. russia is trying to bully bell ruffian forces into joining them. rushes, asking reportedly china for ammunition for food because the food, but it's centered soldiers into war with some of it expired decades ago. to know that russian forces were wholly unprepared for what they're finding here, i think that they expected something maybe more similar to what the u. s. experienced in afghanistan as it withdrew the taliban last year, swept rapidly across the country. the government fled. and the government flaps and the taliban quickly swept into power. that seems like something that the russians may have expected here. unfortunately, it's not the reality improved seriously miscalculated, ah, i your thoughts about this, that do you agree? is russia repeating the same mistakes as it did in past operations, whether in afghanistan or half way? yes, and now i think the 1st thing is, it's too earlier to dismiss our effort on me and the fire power. so the energy

grouping they can to supply. so let us kind of not saying that they're defeated and kind of early days in these. yes. yeah. but i have been to a dentist on 2 girls made tour and they pulled the homes. what can syria, what the chechnya has seen these places and talked to people who actually lived a little bit was so a bit of kind of hand hands on experience there. to some extent they were all quite different. the away chess now was horrible miscalculation, but remember, the russian army at that time was of course script army and they stamped into battle field. a lot of completely, i'm experienced and unwilling. once good. there was also a big opposition within the russia and within russian military to the company. yeah . okay. in that, they would not the really quite sell ground groups. so the only way little tactic

was to warm, grossly from the ear. ok out sick when it was different because russia started involvement in for a live port only towards the end of 2016 when the war was on already ranging for 4 years. and there were multiple actors in walk in. it is also a, so a lot of difference as you say, and let me come to your legacy at a tactic used in syria, western circle and besieged rebel held areas and pound them from the air and from artillery batteries any any, and exhaust really that the defenders and any civilians who had managed to escape this is not quite what we're seeing yet in ukraine, but how long if it is the case, how long will the ukrainians be able to to hold on as long as much and again, if we imagine even you know worst case scenario and it's really difficult for me to

imagine that keel will surrender. but we will continue fight. you know, there's no question about citizen decisiveness of people. you know, also were recently pulls held in the ukraine. 90 percent are supporting the government a to 5 percent or is going to take arms to defend the current. so let me compare this conference. i will give you the figures. ok, so in 10 years war in afghanistan to soviet union lost. 15000 soldiers, 15 souls. okay. now according to ukrainian official statistics, russia lost the see just and city ok, maybe ukrainian statistics is a little bit higher. americans is americans are talking about $77000.00 soldiers killed russian soldiers at min

minimum. ok so, but you can compare 15000 for 10 years in the canister. and let's take 7000 in 3 weeks down. this 7000 is more z u. s. last in of gas and for 20 years. so the losses which russia have curse. i incredible. a ration never, never had such losses as a gown. okay, so the statistics of course would be denied by russia. let me ask all 3 of you. one last round of question, everything is denied every single night, but of course russia is not waging war against the green and there are shades not getting civil. ok, not that bad, but let's, let's say i'm, so let me ask you

a final round of question to each one of you. we have very little time left. let me start with you, doug. what are the possible scenarios for, for the outcome of the battle? will russia be able to gain full control of ukraine? i think there's 2 options here that could really happen. first put in, if he was smart, he would recognize that there is no political victory to be had in ukraine, but ukrainians are more motivated to win this war than the russian soldiers are. and they're more willing to go farther than the russians if he was wise and wanted to preserve his rule. he would end this war, he would stop the killing. he would try to save the world. you know what, you put these sanctions on russia and isolated us because of this war i ended the war with these sanctions must bring companies back to russia and you'll try to preserve his rule that way. i know, actually i don't think that's what coons going to do. okay. i could put you your thought, sorry, running out of time. i apologize for interrupting you. i know your thoughts,

what do you see as a possible outcome of this conflict? so this is not a war on about ukraine. this is potent control based on that with the west. it depends what kind of concessions the west is prepared to give him. and if the west gives him something, which will sort of set this by him, then ukraine will span. if not, we're going to see a very lovely and very distraught and possibly what local bait. ok. and i think it's a battle with the west alexi you. hi, chris, black, you know, thank you and i thank you for that. next bill you have the last word. how does this? and so here, here i totally disagree was my russian go because it's not the same war between russia service. it's not the result of come from dish. quoting says this crazy deal to crash you agree? because result, ukraine,

you cannot restore some kind of the soviet union or the rational employer. so point in the saying that ukrainians do not exist as a separate nation, that ukrainian state is for you. so he would like to crush you agree? we're going to defer. and i seen it adds and those that they put in will be it would be necessary for him to do his throat. he cannot win. so you know, he cannot win. it's ok. thank you so much. thank you for your thoughts on this very interesting discussion program. alexey her on on. i'm a driver. dog kane, thank you for joining us. and thank you for watching. you can always watch this program again any time by visiting our website at al jazeera dot com for further discussion. go to our facebook page at facebook dot com forward slash ha inside story. you can of course, also join the conversation on twitter handle is that ha inside story from mutually

back to bring the whole team. thanks for watching. bye for now. ah, it is murder. when you throw a fire bomb into someone's home and me, she no longer fresh with you know, a mic. no, that is significant to numbers that insignificant ideologically the insignificant, even as a crime ganga. very significant by the contain things, the government, a defacto policy. thou shalt not kill parts of the radicalized deed series on al jazeera. with

some international politics to the global pandemic, and everything in between. it did not respect poor people and your our planet promised to ensure the safety of women. what happened the, just the 15th and pulled back, that people actually have more feel. why is the u. k. feel hostile to play in the mysteries? all of us join me if i take on the live, dismantled misconceptions and the meet the contradiction at the time to get up front. on al jazeera from the front lines altos, there is correspondence continued to report every angle, if the war in ukraine, we've just heard shilling in the distance and machine gunfire. in the forests, there is a humanitarian crisis erupting on multiple fronts. red rocket landed just

a few meters from our convoy them in the positions. i've been all over the need for a region. it's higher, st. totally destroyed along the road we came in on. there was still clearly an active battlefield day with out there for the latest development. ah hello, i'm emily. angry now don't hi headquarters. these are the top stories on al jazeera . 10 humanitarian cargoes are open in ukraine to allow civilians to play cities, including mary paul, keith and lou hands. several previous attempts at opening humanitarian cargoes have failed each time keith and moscow have blamed each other for breaching the chance. let me all mario full residence, leaving the city, including on foot are provided with the necessary assistance from today that will be brought to per johnson by buses.