ality is during your presidency, mr. mcintosh. it's only crazy that make you act there. had to be a pandemic to make you realize that help workers have been in a terrible way for years doing for nearly half a century. presidential candidates in france are faced off live on tv and a debate that's usually watched by millions of people, and is often a pivotal moment in the election. or monte de la allison fiery exchanges, rhetorical flourishes. the debates are often highly anticipated by viewers and rarely dull. over the years the protagonists and politics have changed, but one thing has remained constant. the person most widely perceived won the debate, often wins the election. voters on sunday will now decide whether history will repeat itself. natasha butler al jazeera paris will credit. ah. hello again. the headlines on al jazeera russian forces maria paul had been

targeting the city's last ukrainian defenders were hold up in a still plans for buses, caring civilian evacuees have left the besieged port city. russia says had successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile president vladimir putin says each miss hawkins carry up to 12 nuclear warheads and can hit any target on earth. is really forces of injured 13 palestinians by using rubber bullets under further 5 or suffering from pepper spray inhalations. this all happening at the locks almost compound. ah, it when days of heightened tension at the site and occupied east jerusalem incursions by jewish ultra nationalist groups sparked the recent unrest. stephanie decker is an occupied east jerusalem with the latest today's the last day at that to these right wing jewish groups are being allowed access to this site. it is hugely controversial. we've just seen videos posted on social media as well,

of them praying. now this is really the red line, the status quo, which is what was agreed upon between jordan and israel. jordan is the custodian of the muslim holy sites. was that muslims were allowed to play prey and non muslims, to visit the 2 contenders for the french presidency. have taken part in a televised debate ahead of sundays election encumbered to many one micron as far right challenger marina pen discussed the cost of living the ukraine war and the future of the european union. a fast moving wild fire has force thousands of people in the u. s. state of arizona to leave their homes. strong winds and drought conditions are driving the fire towards property or is near the city of flagstaff. the size of the wild fire has tripled in just a few days time. we'll have more news at the top of the hour right here on out as you're up next. it's inside story by, by we understand the differences and similarities of

cultures across the world. so no matter what lucy al jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you, al jazeera, russia has begun a renewed offensive in many a calling it the battle for dom voss for what does this new phase mean for the larger context. and what is the human? this is inside story. ah. hello, welcome to the program. i'm 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 stand more weapons to ukrainian forces. many say this is a crucial stage of the conflict and could lead to the breakup of ukraine. we get our guests in just a moment. the 1st this update from us a big so suddenly, what russia refuses to call a war has now entered its 2nd phase. and its being dubbed the battle for don bass association in the east of ukraine is aimed as was announced from the very beginning to fully liberate the dan yeske and logan's, quickbooks, and this operation. oh will, we will continue with this beginning. i mean, another stage of this operation is beginning and then sure this will be a very important moment of this entire special of derision. 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 the incentives for when you are a, he's king. he's the intensity of fire by russian troops in the hockey direction. in the dumbass and in the neat proper trask 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. you crane says it's repelled a number of russian attacks in the east. a 2nd ultimatum issued by russia for ukrainian soldiers in marrow pulled to surrender, has passed. moscow had said the lives of the soldiers inside to steal works would be sped. if they ceased what it called senseless resistance said no, no sir. okay, what can berlin up like most around the united states and western countries and doing everything to drag out a special meeting operation as much as possible. as for the grand supplies of foreign weapons,

clearly signal the intention to provoke the key regime to keep fighting until the last crane. the european union is considering more sanctions on russia. we call on russia, we continue to call on russia to stop all the illegal and illegitimate or actions connected to his aggression against ukraine. and when it comes to next round of 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. although russia may have failed to take, keep the battle for the east is one. russia cannot be seen to loose. i said, beg, i'll jazeera ah. right, let's bring in august and key of we have helena, your chain co, a member of the ukranian parliaments,

and secretary of the national presidential council. moscow. pavel falcon, how're defense and military analyst for via gazetteer and independent newspaper and in brussels, theresa fallon, director of the santa fe russia, europe, asia studies. thank you very much for joining us here on inside story. i'd like to start with you. a puzzle, falcon, how or if i may as the military analyst? what is this at new stage in the war? what does it mean? motor change your van for service? so russia try and in the beginning of this campaign to try this advance at the same time on the number of different, separate directions. it didn't work out very well. so now the of russia's reserves and forces which are clearly mob adequate for such a job. moving in all directions will be concentrating in the

particular area of the east south ukraine to achieve apparently victory there. so now they began once when for sure, announced at least by the russian. i was a new stage. i've heard 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 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 we're, we're 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 napper captured a bridge over the nap or rather spectacular, but then that advance kind came to

a halt, not enough reserves. and now the commander who is in charge of this initial success in the south of general, alexander gordon gulf, the commander of the south merch district is become v c. and c of the whole opperation has given more freedom, more reserves. and since he is kind of the general of the month 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 we'll see what you're going to do. of course, right now it's a very slow start. for the 2nd stage, it's 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 once 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 is much of execution obstacle. 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 much of execution of the be 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 occupants, 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 money which is very time, there are still a number of to be lance. we are talking mainly about woman and children. and in mice of be nan as a mob there of 2 children. there is no way that russian soldiers can thor cherry, can sally children. there are a lot of children, a lot of mothers, a lot of mothers with new born baby in my one heidi in warm shelf, off as old sky. and we hear the russian soldier have order to sell this people. so russia have an order to sell children. ok, i haven't. li, i know that to all the mothers and all around the big, you know,

people who are watching our show. do you consider that it does okay to shall 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 mary, a poll. it hasn't been verified, but that is, that is, 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 the european council president shells and 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 boss to have some sort of success story. but even many ellis think that the may, 9th deadline. some people think that because of the may 90 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 taken russia. so people overestimated. the russian military has been acting very chaotically and now they can just focus on don boss, but of course, 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 europe's 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 of 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 when you know, 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 who are or pro russian than other countries. so it would be difficult for them to all work together. they might water down the sanctions and 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 their backs on intended consequences of russia's behavior. for example, both sweden and finland are looking like they will join nato. we're 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 had to 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 what's 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 will guns and on that score blast. so now they're trying to do that. apparently none,

but again there's lisa 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 very much a 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 a summer campaign did not begin the ground. the still a bit work. there were a lot of rain. so right now actually the masses will be very slow by definition because you have to still rely on paved roads, which in the band boss are very narrow that many of them in a very bad state. so both sides are preparing for decisive battle in the summer

campaign. and that's right now what will be joking for positions who is going to occupy the better position for the decisive factor, which at the beginning will happen and may, may be. and you, helena, you can't go talking about the east about dawn, but it's been almost 8 years since they self declared themselves as republics. it's been described since then is becoming totalitarian through its life. right. ok, slight. will you give me or once again, this be a bowl? well, going to referenda, which 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 russia, and don't say that you create new territory claims themselves to be, you know,

russian directors are independent. this self employed and 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'd like to 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 board 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 talk to the whole to share the amount of time. so i'm sorry, i'm going to have to pass on over to our analyst in europe. teresa, 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 trading their keels on all of this present to linda, give you credit has banked for a 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 reaches 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, 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 spillage that you 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. and how are there have been war crimes

documented. there has been an opening 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 law, i believe they're going to be investigated, but 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 really 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 sir. 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 disaster summer. 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 weapon 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 traditional 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. whereas, you know, ukraine's a greek ukraine, agriculture, ukrainian food, ukraine, sunflower oil, but also wheat and, and recall the chill 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 plant wood for the whole world. and i think we're already in the fall of 600000000 people in the world are dependent on ukrainian food. i know we're already saying i just around the around. right. and we're all ready seeing skyrocketing costs of basic goods for many people around the world where come 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. can 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 this and i'm the tax, you're my apologies. we have run all the time. we will have to leave it there. thank you very for joining us. a vault fog. how are and theresa fallon and thank you for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website. i'll g r a dot com for the discussion. go to our facebook page, that's facebook dot com, forward slash a jane side story. you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is at a j inside story. for me can vanelle the entire team here and go, ha, ah,

mainstream coverage of big stories can sometimes deliver more heat than lights in any waters scenario. there's always a push to simplify. narratives. nuances is always called for, even in the case of an aggressive war, the listening pe, delve into the news, narrative and dissect them. there is not our great deal of subtlety. we're talking about the barbarism that is unfolding as though we somehow unique. it's not unique covering the way the news is covered on al jazeera, the climate has changed every year for millions of years, decades of talk, but little action is all about distract, create confusion to crate, smoke and mirrors. the shocking truth about how the climate debate has been systematically supported. the oil industry was a made bank roller or opposition to clock back to campaign against the climate. do

you think that's a bad thing? more shooting and did whiskers? absolutely. on august eve from the for velez of correct us. so the battle fields around most of our job is to get to the truth and empower people through knowledge. ah, russia says it's now in full control of mario poll, except for the as of style steel plants where ukrainian forces are determined to stand their ground. ah, they're wanting out. is there a light from our headquarters in jail for i'm getting navigator also coming up. the battle in eastern ukraine we talked to patients who say they can't leave because they have nowhere else to go tension in the occupied.