way to do that is by deploying real clean energy, which i would not characterize nuclear energy that way. but we have it today and may be around for a little bit as we work on that transition. the $93.00 reactors across the us already provide 20 percent of the nation's electricity and half it's carbon free energy. the u. s. administration hopes the new funding will avert new closures. john henderson, al jazeera, byron, illinois, a type of quick check on the top stories here. a ukrainian commander has issued an urgent call for heavy weapons. as the russian military drives to take the proceed. city of matthew polt, tens of thousands of people remain trapped their plans to establish a humanitarian corridor with russia failed on wednesday when ukrainian president vladimir zalinski says force is defending matter, your po, need more military support. what did my deal? but in order to unblock marapoo, there are 2 ways, serious,

heavy weapons that we are counting on so far, we don't have enough of these weapons. the 2nd way is diplomatic. so par, russia does not agree to this. whatever public signals they make, that they are open that they'll make exchanges. they continue to play their own games. you council of president charles michelle says russia must be held accountable for war crimes. he's in keith, where he's been holding talks with the greatest president. these are atrocities, these are all crimes it most to be punished. it will be punished. the mus pay for what the, if done there in, in many of the cities and other locations in ukraine. and right, know they chew, i finished to the people of soldiers, but to saw the civilians in the dumbass in ma, here, paul, in other cities who are fighting for their life while fighting for the sovereignty of ukraine. but they know very well why fighting for the european values for the

freedom, for the democratic principles. russia says that how successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile called the summit. president vladimir putin says to provide food for thought, for those who threaten russia. but u. s. defense g say the new weapon poses no significant threat as well as hit targets and garza for a 2nd time this week. it says rockets applied towards this ready town of sterile earlier. there were no reports of casualties on either side, as well as it hits a military post in garza and the 2 contenders for the french presidency of taken part and a tv debate ahead of some days election incumbent manual micro and he is far. i challenge marina pen discussed the cost of living the war in ukraine in the future of the european union. opinion polls favor macro, but suggest a tight race. we share those with the headlines and he's continues here on our to 0 after inside story station. thanks for watching black. ah,

russia has begun of renewed offensive in many calling it the battle for dom voss for what does this new phase mean for the larger context and what is the human culture? this is inside story. ah. hello, welcome to the program on kim vanelle. it's been nearly 2 months since russian forces invaded neighboring ukraine. the conflict has killed countless civilians and displaced millions. now moscow says it's shifting its focus to the east where it's

increased its assault and the don boss region. the us, british and canadian babies have promised to spend more weapons to ukrainian forces, meaning say, this is a crucial stage of the conflict and could lead to the breakup of ukraine. we'll get our guests in just a moment. the 1st this update from us a bake. so suddenly, what russia refuses to call a war has now entered its 2nd phase. and its being dubbed the battle for don bus association in the east of ukraine is aimed as was announced from the very beginning to fully liberate than yes gun logan's republics. and this operation, oh will, we will continue with this beginning. i mean, another stage of this or duration is beginning and then sure this will be a very important moment of this entire special parish. ukrainians caught up in the fighting a forced to flee as russian forces pummeled cities and towns ukraine's president

says, russia will not be successful. in then seni vol. when you are a, he's given me the intensity of fire by russian troops in the hockey direction. in the dumbass and in the neat pro petrosky region has increased significantly yesterday the same as before. they consider ordinary residential housing to be normal military targets. in this war, the russian army will forever inscribe itself in world history, as perhaps the most barbaric and inhumane army in the world are of ukraine says it's repelled a number of russian attacks in the east. a 2nd ultimatum issued by russia for ukrainian soldiers in marrow, paul to surrender has passed. moscow had said the lives of the soldiers inside to steal works would be sped if they see what it called senseless resistance. didn't a survey would come through less utmost around the united states and western countries and doing everything to drag out a special emitted operation as much as possible as the grim supplies of foreign

weapons. clearly signal the intention to provoke the key regime to keep fighting until the last ukraine. the european union is considering more sanctions on russia . recall on the russia we continue to call in russia to stop all the illegal and the electric motor actions connected through aggression against ukraine. and when it comes to next around the sanctions. i think the you highest represent, that is the leaders of that you and also the representative of the member states. they're very clear that we continue to work on further sanctions. and when the time will be right, they will be announced so far calls for a cease fire or the threat of sanctions have not stopped this war. and although russia may have failed to take, keep that battle for the east is one. russia cannot be seen to loose. i said, beg, i'll jazeera, ah, well, let's bring in august and key of we have helena, your chain co, a member of the ukranian parliament and secretary of the national presidential

council. moscow. pavel falcon, how're defense and military analyst for no via gazette, her an independent newspaper and in brussels. theresa fallon, director of the center for russia, europe, asia studies. thank you very much for joining us here on inside story. i'd like to start with you puzzle falcon. how if i may, as the military analyst, what is this new stage in the war? what does it mean more to change your van for, sir? said so, russia try and in the beginning of this campaign to a kind of advance at the same time on the number of different, separate directions that didn't work out very well. so now the of russia's reserves and forces which are clearly not adequate for such a job of moving in all directions will be concentrating in of the

particular area of the east south ukraine to achieve apparently a victory there. so now they began, watson for sure, announced at least by the russian. i knew stage. i thought it described as a do over, i don't know if you're familiar with that, but where you fail the 1st time you try again a 2nd time, is that what this is? the failure of the initial aims. therefore, a re calibration, a new kind of measure of what success means for russia in this war. well, in the 1st week, more were so would be campaign. in the south russia chief, quite a lot of the forces broke out of crimea, moved swiftly in different directions, captured the number of ukrainian big cities without much resistance or with no resistance at all across the nipper, captured a bridge over that nap or rather spectacular. but then that the vans kind of came

to a halt, not enough reserves. and now the commander who was in charge of this initial success in the south. and general, alexander and gordon gulf, the commander of the south mo, it should district is become the c and c of the whole operation has given more freedom, more reserves. and since he is kind of the general of the month of, from the russian point of view, who achieved most successes, it's called on him to kind of achieve success of the entire operation and below. see what you're going to do. of course, right now, it's a very slow start for the 2nd stage at a preliminary action and very slow action. all right, let's talk about what russia is going to do. how do you know you can call your member of the ukrainian parliament, your in key of your ukrainian? what do you think that russia's president push and wants with don boff? oh, 1st of all, i want to response on the, on

a light and russian propaganda that you just heard from the man before. so there is no operation and don't call it operation because it war it's mess of execution ops to de leon, who have nothing to do, you know, with military guy. if you want to call dark cher, torturing children, an operation. if you are calling these kind of things, an operation, then i'm really sorry for you. because you know, there is something wrong with your head and with your moral qualities. so this is worth, this is, might have executed of us. this is torturing of children. this is the racing woman and no one in this world. no one who has heart and who has mind in his head don't call it operation. it's a war and it's, it's a very bad thing. the russian walk you. 7 the thrush, my teeth,

i joined in ukraine, and this again is very time. just yesterday i have reported on my teacher that ah, the situation in mighty, which is very time. there are still a number of to be lance. we are talking mainly about women and children, and in my opinion as much that of to children. there is no way that russian soldiers can thor terry can sally children. there are a lot of children. a lot of mothers, a lot of mothers with new born baby in my boy, heidi in warm shelf off as old guy. and we hear the russian soldier have order to sell this people. so russia have an order to sell children. ok. i haven't lee, i know to all i rob, dick mothers and all a rabbit. you know,

people who are watching our show. do you consider that it does ok to shout and to murder children? do you imagine that your children are you yourself will goal this kind of nightmare? this is what ukraine is going through. i know that i know that the of mary paul has said some 20000 civilians have been killed in mario poll. it hasn't been verified, but that is, that is a, that is a shocking number. i need to move over to brussels. if i may, theresa fallen. what do you think that president fusion wants with don boss? and what do you make of, i know the european council present shells. a shell is in key of today. what do you make of europe's response so far? well, it appears that instead of working all across ukraine, they want to focus on don back to have some sort of success story. but even many ellis thinks that may, 9th deadline. some people think that because of the main picture day deadline that

they want to serve up some sort of positive story for us because most alyssa, being rather shocked and surprised at how long this is taking russia. so people overestimated the russian military. it has been acting very chaotically and now they can just focus on don boss, but of course the ukrainians have a great deal experience there. they've been at work for 8 years. and as you noted, shells michelle, the president of the european council is visiting here today, signaling your interest in the region. but the whole issue about sanctions is kind of symbolic in many respects. some stations do have t, we're seeing that the russian economy is really taking a hit. but the, the key issue is energy. and, for example, germany is almost half reliant on their supplies for russia. so i think that the fact that they're still not talking about gas so that they're very serious about that because they're worried about the inflationary pressures in europe. in

addition to that, individual members, they can cut reliance on russian gas as we've seen with india, which now has 0 imports of russian guess. so they don't need all for the whole, you were 27 member states. it's very difficult to get everyone to agree. you have some countries like hungry or, or pro russian than other countries, so it would be difficult for them to all work together. they might water down the sanctions. but then there are other types of symbolic sanctions like and caviar, which is just a small, small portion of exports to europe. so i think that the europeans, you know, they do a lot of virtue signaling, but i think that there is a growing wearing is about what's really happening in ukraine. we've seen millions of refugees lead to europe. and as the other commentator noted, this is a very serious war, and we're also seeing the facts on intended consequences of russia's behavior. for example, both sweden and finland are looking like they will join nato. like i said,

i'm going to talk about, we're going to talk about those moves to with joining nato, a little bit, asia, and what that might mean for security calculations in europe. and i'd come back to you puzzle falcon howard, because i don't think we've really answered this question yet. what is the significance of the don boss region for president clinton low russia has been supporting the pro ration separate this there and on that scale, and will gumps, or since in 2014, before this campaign began, russia recognized officially the independence of these 2 are a state whits and actually of the official reason for going into your graham has been the need to defend them and expand their territory to the administrative, pre war territories of the little guns and on that score blast. so now they're trying to do that apparently. none, but again, there's

a least talk about the main 9 deadline. i don't believe that there is a deadline. it's not, there is no deadline at all. the other thing is to brushes, to court in a very serious situation, and we'll try to do its best to break out of it. but the answer in may 9 does not put in my check role. there's going to be a parade in moscow and okay, but that's it. right now. russia and ukraine are in the mid season of the situation. the winter campaign is over, the summer campaign did not begin the ground was still a bit wet. there were a lot of rain. so right now actually the advances will be very slow by definition, because you have to still rely on paved roads, which in the don boss are very narrow, not many of them, and they're very bad state. so both sides are preparing for

a decisive battle in the summer campaign, and that's right now was so be jockeying for positions who is going to occupy the better position for the decisive factor which had begin, will happen and may, may be. and you, helena, you can go talking about the about don, boss, it's been almost 8 years since they self declared themselves as republics. it's been described since then it's becoming totalitarian. it's like right. ok, slight. will you give me your once again, this be a bowl? well, going to referenda will be poor by russian soldiers who came to our land, who came to us over an country which ukraine is and what in 2014 and they force people to go to craig referendum, please don't use which in narrative don't use narrative of russian and don't say that you create new territory claims themselves to be, you know,

russian characters or in the family for the client and your fled. they are not self declared, right? they are not self declared. ok, right? they are generally separated. so please don't use russian narrative because i hope that you are the bands of media and not kremlin media or russia media. right. what i tell you is that is that, is that the guy, the russian guy we just talk is talking about, you know, it kind of, we to campaign some a campaign, but he forgot to mention that there is 3 campaign. it's s o n t campaign a campaign. when you craig farmers, when you grant agriculture company is a play team full owned which will grow in summer and autumn. and i want to tell you, i was actually to you up to finally knock to your hearts and your minds with

information. that's what the russians are doing in ukraine is through the city, but not all the ukrainian pupils, ukrainian mothers, ukrainian children, but also they are doing horrible things to all around the world. ok, i will. sure. no, no, i hear what you're saying, please. no, excuse me. my role in this my role is to ensure that we have and even conversation you want me to have the opportunity to share the amount of time. so i'm sorry, i'm going to have to pass on over to our analyst in europe. theresa, how do you think this is going to play out? is the east going to come under russia's fair of influence? is that car? is it going to be annexed in the fog of war? no one has made any correct predictions at all in this war. and i would say that it's really unclear, know when we predict how the things that have happened in ukraine. so i will not

make any predictions on this. they are adding more troops in the region. we know russians have a huge morale problem, and this could, the cranes upon very hard because it's their country and it's their land. so it's very difficult at this moment to predict what will happen will be a turning point. as leverage has stated, it's phase 2. but i think that your p in response to all of this needs to be more weapons, more support, more sanctions, and more money. we see germany kind of tracking their keels on all of this president zalinski. ukraine has banked for leper tanks from germany, but there's a lot of reluctant to do this. a new scandal just erupted recently in europe about the s p d. 's ties to gas problems, the russian gas company. so the corruption, the octopus of russian corruption, which is not just to london grad, as everyone calls london, where, where it's known for washing the longer, you know,

being the laundromat for russian oligarchs, money. but we see this in germany, that the biggest country in europe, the strongest economy, and they have such close ties to russia. we see that it has hobbled any initiatives to have sanctions meaningful sanctions. i guess. now they're trying to cobble together some sections on russian oil that has been delayed for quite some time, but they're trying to iron that out. so i think that europe really needs to take these things seriously. i know it's big and unwieldy and very hard to get these things done. they do a lot of virtue signaling and simple. but i think that we understand that there will be village that you can might not just be the only it might just be an appetizer if we look at the agreement. so the draft agreements that who's in table back in december, that this means more than ukraine, the baltics are fearful central eastern european member states are very fearful. so i think that putting has inadvertently given a mojo puzzle hogan howard. there have been war crimes

documented. there has been an opening all of an investigation into possible alleged war crimes at the stories as well as we've been hearing 4 weeks now are, are horrendous these, these just atrocities as we've been discussing. do you believe that russia will, i guess, be held to account for all that these will be fully investigated? i low, i believe they're going to be investigated. we're not in russia right now. the moscow is rejecting out of right now. that's the kind of traditional position happened with the murder of the polish officers and 1940 and was a russian denied any responsibility to the soviet union collapsed together. it come in the straw, so i don't think right now russia is going to cooperate a rope. fortune promised apparently the austrian chance weren't that russia with

corporate, but i don't think that that's going to happen. of course, in the future, if there is, as i don't know, regime change in moscow, there are these crimes could be actually tried in court may be made even in moscow. i don't know, but that's very much in the future. it's not immediate right now. and it doesn't have right now that much bearing on the situation in the field though, of course, in the it's a, it's a terrific p r. disaster for moscow. and i believe the very serious things that have been done by russian soldiers and apparently by their commanders were working the other direction. i'm not sure that this was a political intent, but the anyway, the result is disasters. but i think is going to be done about it. okay,

so i can i to you, helena, you tanka. oh, how do you think this is going to play out? what are your, i guess, concerns for the coming weeks and months for your country? if a russians don't put down their weapons and leave. 7 our sovereign country, a dissertation not only in ukraine, but also in the world and in around the world as well will be deteriorating. the conditions will be worse and worse. and there will be a very serious problem with food and with food security and in a radical world as well. now whereas, you know, ukraine's a greek ukraine, agriculture, ukrainian food, ukraine, sunflower oil, but also wheat and other and recall the killer ro products, a, c, d, around the world as well. 42 percent of ukraine, an export was agriculture and foot. so if these year and next year around the

world will have no agriculture from ukraine, if i go to cultural product, will go the price for a good cultural product will go high, you know who to blame. you should blame russia. you should blame russian army and you just blame him because they innovated our country and they don't let us to have a proper land or a plant campaign. yeah, we are unable to want would for the whole world, i think we're already on the phone. 600000000 people in the world are dependent on ukrainian food. i know we're already saying i just around the around dr. will already seeing skyrocketing costs of basic goods for many people around the world where come lead to the end of the program. i'd like to go back to theresa fallon just to, to round out the show here. when the war 1st started,

the stand with ukraine sort of symbol it was everywhere. do you think that as time goes on, the world's resolve, the west's resolve to help you? crane may filter. i mean, that's a very good question. you know, the national communities attention span is very limited. so i think that moves like today's president of the european council charles michelle visit to keeps it on the the map for many people. but i see even in the new cycle, we don't see it on the front page so much anymore. the story of ukraine. so i think the russians understand that, and i also, we all know that the warrant on, has been going on for 8 years, and it didn't really get onto the headlines until the age of ukraine. so for 8 years this has been link, you know, this has been a long drawn out conflict. and so this is my concern. but on the other hand,

now we're seeing because of this kind of distraction with ukraine, sweden and finland are looking like they are going to ask to join nato. so i think that individually meaningful and they wouldn't have considered it because they saw, you know, they're not really fearful of russia to watch me. or they see the military not as frightening as they had in the past is incompetent and chaotic and so joining together sweden and finland appear to be gaining more momentum to join nato. so there's a nato summit in june. so this is something that will be moving forward and today in the afternoon it's a swedish newspaper. there was a very positive editorial by that tauriel board supporting. we didn't membership of nato, which is really a watershed moment because for 200 years we didn't has been a neutral countries. so for them to join with finland, the idea that you know this germinating idea of joining nato full members status

because they do have very close cooperation with nato at this point. but they would be covered by article by so that would transform the landscape of the security landscape of europe. and i think that russia has really misplaced its hand. it has changed the strategic landscape of europe in ways that they had never intended. and i think that the fax you, my apologies, we have run over time, we will have to leave it there. thank you very much for joining us. a vote falcon. how are and theresa valid and thank you for watching. you can see the program again . any time by visiting our website, i'll just there dot com for the discussion, go to our facebook page, that's facebook dot com, forward slash again side story. you can also join the conversation on twitter. handle is at a james side story for me. can vanelle the entire team here and uh huh. ah

ah. african story from african perspective. it could be so select wireless cuz your response to that once incident with one. and if they're short documentary from african filmmakers from booking of fossil and head for me, it's really important to teach the present comes and do something that i can be proud of. the painting and she hands bench africa direct on al jazeera for over 15 years. i've called for the armed conflict, the natural disasters,

and the political a, people in the philippines, parents, fellows, they walked for hours with their children just to get as the filipino as a woman. it is a rare privilege to tell the stories of my own people to a global audience. ah, hello, i'm darn jordan and joe hi, with the top stories here in al jazeera ukrainian commander has issued an urgent call for heavier weapons. as the russian military drives to take the proceed. city of matthew polt, tens of thousands of people remain trapped. that matter, you polish, critical for russia to link separatist control territory in the east with russian annex crimea in the south. and us racial said our reports, it's equally important for the ukrainians to defend this was life in mario put just 2 months ago children playing on the beach.