that are sometimes faltering, and that still require a guiding human hand. nonetheless, japan feels it's time for robots to take their place in the work for some public streets, allowing them to be used for deliveries in some local neighborhoods from this spring. for japan, the use of robots for even the simplest task, cannot come soon enough. the country's holding birth rate has led to a recent government warning that society is on the cost of whether or not it will continue to fully function. in the logistics businesses are developing the drones that one day will be delivering packages to our doors. japan has just lifted some of the restrictions on certain drone operations over urban areas wants to know. we make a lot of use cases. we believe there will be more often the market and there were a lot more areas to fly. so we see more potential drone development and

production here as elsewhere, has been spurred on by the war in ukraine. dec spose like this one in sol, have been showcasing the military applications for the robot at this expo in japan . it's falling birth rate that is the most pressing battle. and then the robot it finds an ally. rob mcbride, al jazeera tokyo ah, you're watching over here. these are the headlines. israel has intercepted to rockets fired from the gaza strip. these rarely military says it's jets then carried out air strikes on an underground rocket factory. there are no reports of casualties. it happened after the deadliest day of violence in the occupied west bank in decades, palestinians they're observing 3 days of morning after israeli forces killed 10 people in the west bank. 9 of those in the janine refugee camp. a world health

organization committee is meeting to decide if the coven 19 pandemic is still a global emergency. several scientists worn it may be too early to say it's at an end when there are still so many people infected in china. 5 former police officers in the us state of tennessee have been charged with 2nd degree murder over the fatal baiting of a black man. the officers who are also black were fired after an internal investigation found they had used excessive force. one of the news biggest companies has hit back accusations of accounting, fraud and stalk manipulation. the dinah group is preparing to launch at 2 and a half a $1000000000.00 sale of shares. chairs in the group though, have fallen heavily since the claims were made by an investment firm. hindenburg research and riot police in peru have fine t guess at protest is in lima. they're calling for president dana bella tape to resign. she came to power last month after former president pedro castillo,

was jailed. after trying to dissolve congress. all right, those are the headlines i am. emily, anglo in the news continues here on al jazeera, after inside story. in the meantime, head to our website out to sierra dot com, african stories from african perspectives, machine dogs to songs of con, me no, ma mancha. now when i did picture with short documentary from african fill me from wanda and bookkeeper, fossil superintendent, give me quote, it is what it sounds of home and the coach in africa direct on al jazeera. how will us in german tanks help ukraine in its war against russia? berlin and washington are sending leopard and abrams models to keep russia calls the move of provocation. but with such new weaponry,

change the course of the conflict. this is inside story. ah hello and welcome to the program. i'm how much i'm drawn, both germany and the us have agreed to send tanks to ukraine. berlin will supply its lepper twos and washington the m one. abrams. after resisting for weeks germany finally gave in to political pressure is also agreed to allow other countries, such as poland and finland to send leopard to tanks from their arsenals. they are considered essential for ukraine if it's to take back territory captured by russia early in the war. president vladimir zalinski once 300 tanks and has been asking natal member states for the weapons. it looks like he'll eventually get $88.00 from germany and another $31.00 from the us. so will this turn the war in ukraine's favor our correspondence,

ambrose robbie. as this report it is being called a game changer for ukraine. berlin, agreeing to supply its lever to speaking to reporters from a military training facility in east germany, defense minister boris. her story is pressed on when they will arrive in kind of can you get the credit at the end of the year when we are going to do 1234. i just sent over at the end of march time. because because expect you to be imminent, all i know it's early, or this week germany approved the delivery of hundreds of leper to tanks in e u arsenals. to keep in the 1st stage of the latest nato push to send more heavy weapons. what ukrainian commanders say they need along with more ammunition before the winter thought. and then expected russian spring offensive. getting those

vehicles will improve their ability to take ground. but, but i would be a little cautious about assuming that with them they will conquer the world. the u . s. is sending dozens of its m one abrams tanks and the u. k. 14 of its challenger twos, they will add to hundreds of russian t 70 two's already in ukrainian military service. moscow sees the development as western countries becoming directly involved in the war and one that will lead to what it describes as permanent escalation. the successive tanks on land in european conflicts has historically relied on air supply. and that is exactly what ukraine's president says. it needs next long range missiles more artillery, and crucially water and military aircraft. if it is to take back the skies over ukraine. vein bas robbie for inside story on wednesday, president joe biden announced the us will send 31 abrams tanks to support keith. the abrams tanks are the most capable tanks in the world, are also extremely complex to operate and maintain. so we're also given ukraine,

the parts and equipment necessary to effectively sustain these tanks on the battlefield. and we began will began to train ukrainian troops on these issues of sustain logistical maintenance, soon as possible. delivering these tanks to the fields going to take time time, and that we'll see will use to make sure the ukrainians are fully prepared. to integrate the abram tanks into their defense, a spokesperson for russian president vladimir putin says that plans by the u. s. and germany to send tanks to ukraine, or a direct involvement in the war. dmitri pascal said on thursday that both european capitals and washington keep saying that the delivery of various kinds of weapons systems, including tanks to ukraine. absolutely does not mean the involvement of these countries or the nato alliance in the hostilities ongoing in ukraine. we categorically disagree with that. moscow views everything that the alliance and the capitals i have mentioned are doing as direct involvement in the conflict. we can see it growing. all right, from warren,

all this i'm joined by our guests in moscow is paula falcon, our an independent defense and military analyst in brussels. is theresa fallon, director of the center for russia, europe, asia studies and in berlin is olaf bunker belinda, director of rasmussen, global a political consultancy firm, a warm welcome to you all and thanks so much for joining us today on inside story at teresa, let me start with you today, how significant is this decision by the u. s. and germany to send tanks to ukraine? and does this constitute a turning point in the conflict? well, there's been a great deal of diplomatic wrangling going on. even within germany, there was a lot of divisions. we saw adelina bareback making statements that were different than chancellor shelters. so i think it's a very positive signal that they finally agreed to do this. it would have been much better if they had agreed to do this. months ago, because we timing is everything, it will take a long time to get this to ukraine, including the u. s. abrams tanks,

it will take, you know, 2 months to get those out there. so the spring offensive is coming and everyone's quite concerned about this. but i think that at the end of the day, we have to remember, you know, germany has a lot of obstacles and that they are making some movement. and that's a really positive sign. let's remember the low starting point. they initially just wanted to send $5000.00 and how much so now we've got them agreeing to send leopard tanks, which also means other countries in europe can send them a per tank. so i think that this is a huge sign, and i know that ukraine present lensky said he needs at least 300. so this is just starting. so i think that it's a very positive sign. and i hope that other countries will continue to support ukraine. puzzle. what's the view in moscow about all of this? i mean, how concerned is russia about the pledging of these tanks and the delivery of these

tanks, and are we going to see russia take take countermeasures? oh, well, there's kind of 2 messages. one is more for the inter, no rush and bombay russian different military specialists, connected to the authorities are saying that these tanks will be destroyed by the russian military that this will not change the overall balance of power. not so many of them and they can be destroyed, destroyed then of course they can. that's not the question, but how effective they will be. that's an open question. the other matthews doing more abroad, but this is a dangerous escalation. but with the west is getting involved, then this is very dangerous, because rush is a nuclear superpower. and it's defeated under both of you could do something drastic. and there have been different kinds of threats that russia will destroy the fast found, clear how and where it goes. russia does not really have the means,

conventionally to destroy them until they appear on the battlefield. actually because russian attacks deep in ukraine do happen, of course, but they are not hitting, moving targets is not really in the russian capacity. very much the russian military. so right now they're fighting, they're preparing, everyone's preparing for coming big battles because it's understood that the on the battlefield right now will be decided how the for that of the situation and ukraine is going to develop olaf, um, obviously that this was a difficult decision for chancellor schultz, when he comes to germany, it could you walk us through how significant a move this is, you know, to allow another country to use german lepper, 2 tanks to fight russians in a war in europe. how big a deal is that for germany right now? is a very, very big deal specifically for the party of the chancellor shots or as surgeries i

mention not only the greens also the coalition partner, the liberal f t p was very supportive for delivery of tanks for 4 weeks now. but the s p d actually is perceived as the party, which of really bon actually was always arguing for we need peace with russia. we need conversations with russia or the diploma city approach is the right way to go significantly. there is on the party, the s p d published on monday, a new white paper on the new foreign policy. and it's worth looking just in the section where the define then your relationship to russia. if you read the manifesto from the bonus next election one and a half years ago of the s b d, it still says there will be no peace in europe without russia. so for the very 1st time now they made a 180 u turn. and in this new paper, they say, we need for peace in europe, a peace against russia saw and they apologized indirectly for all the false

assumptions in the past years towards putin and his regime. so, and this is one of the reasons why the chance are so eager to be backed by the solidarity of the u. s. and his european allies, to do this only as a team effort. a lot of i can follow up with you. i mean, there has been so much pressure on germany to send these tanks. was chancellor shelters decision ultimately contingent upon the u. s. agreeing to send tanks, that would really clenched the deal on this. of course, he didn't say so in public, but from alter it is more than a coincidence that the u. s. government announced the very same moment the he announced actually that germany will make pave the way for the leper to tank, not just from germany, but as serious. i mention also for many european allies and that they will san abraham tanks even if we know that some of those have not even produced yet and would, might take year sexually to deliver them to ukraine. so it was

a huge deal and it seems that the reason why it took so long also am and the defense minister aloida austin actually spent a lot of time in the chancery as we learned from, from some leak present years last week before heading to ramstein forward that conversation and in the end saw the german government made its way and so they are there. but it's really very important also for the, for the german people. if you look into service form today actually. so people are backing in majority the decision, but they are also very afraid actually of a further escalation of the war by this decision. theresa, you know, you were talking earlier about what kind of equipment and aid was being pledged initially to ukraine versus what's being pledged. now, you don't sending these m one abrams tanks to ukraine. this is a big reversal of policy for the us and, and many say that this move would have been unthinkable just months ago. and we

were just talking all off about the german side of this equation. but on the us side, was this decision by president biden. made essentially to convince germany to send their tanks and a lot mentioned it's the way it was portrayed in the news 1st, germany announced, and then shortly afterwards, president biden announced it. so this is a reversal also in us policy. so i think that that sends a very positive signal, but it takes a lot more time for the fmc to get to europe for a while. they have to be built. many of them there are many in storage or that can be just released. and as all of has pointed out, you know, this will take some time also, you know, moving them all the way to europe. so i think that the fact that countries in europe want to release their leopards to kindness an important signal. but i think there are so much frustration in regard to transitional. i mean, there was a lot of protest within germany. there's all sorts of dialogue with in germany

about this and time is of the essence. so as all i pointed out, the s b day is, is traditionally more friendly towards, towards russia. and so i think that this is also kind of the closing of an era and with the announcement of design. and then this changed. some people have described more like flushed coming down a mountain. it's not so much as a turning point, as you know, kind of moving around, trying to find the center of gravity. and i think this was his last longer than anybody in berlin ever envisioned. so i think that as president lindsey said he needs a lot more tanks, he needs more, tillery, he's going to start asking for plains. i don't know if that will happen or not, but i think it's important for ukraine to win. at this point, the message is quite clear that the west is united despite some cur waffles. and in addition, russia use of threatening the use of nuclear weapons. you know,

the west is not being, is not kowtowing to that. and that sends an important message also to beijing that this kind of idle threat of nuclear weapons is designed to scare people some and make them have inaction. that there is some analysis that they sold consisting that the us and the abrams, it kind of signaled. i mean, this is one analyst view that that they're covered by the us nuclear weapon by nuclear defense, but they're already covered to nato. so i think that that's one analysis that germany wanted to have this kind of doing it together with us and to show that their united and that they have coverage because they're on the ground there. and they are fearful of any sort of escalation and russian rhetoric is, can be quite frightening puzzle. theresa was a speaking there about russian rhetoric leading up to this moment and, and in the past since the beginning of the war and ukraine and the potential use of, of nuclear weapons, a tactical nuclear weapons. and i'm curious to get your viewpoint on this. do you

think we'll be hearing more about nuclear weapons going forward? well, there has been pronouncements for including russian officials like her former president, metro madrid was now sister official in the crime. one, talking about the possibility of with moscow ish and defeat conventional warfare would be unacceptable and rushes in your career superpower and it can go man conventional. that's what really nuclear power has nuclear weapons have been used since 1945 as a deterrent. and for brakeman ship to threat nuclear possible escalation, to find ways to curtail a conventional losses or twist conventional threats. and so the

nuclear blackmail is normal. that's how nuclear weapons have been used all the time . but actually going from a beer. oh, we're the nuclear threshold is a totally different story actually using them. because any use of nuclear weapons would not bring really russia, any political or military dividends at all. no. attacking your premium troops on the battlefield will not bring much of their not. then you launch concentrations and the russian for troops in the russian territories near by attacking your aboard the united states. well then there's going to be a response and, and your o nuclear war that will totally destroy russia. and actually the russian nation will be way down. so i believe when that's most where we the analysis and it's coming from other places and actually the kremlin, and the last resort is also saying that this is not really happening. that the

nature of the operation is not changing. so i don't think it's good. moving right now from bracelets shipping from the black to usage public. i just want to follow up with you about another issue you mentioned earlier that rush is going to be preparing for the coming big battles. ah, and i'm curious of, do you believe that the potential arrival of these tanks is going to cause russia to significantly change its tactics on the battlefield? well, course they'll be taken into account, though there are many factors happening there. there's a lot of talk in the worst of others being offensive, but that's not happening. there will be no spring offensive in march. you can't fight in those places in ukraine. you'll just brown and mark that. 8 what happened with the russians last year in march? so if there is growth, there can be an escalation right now in the company,

week or 2. that's possible, wow, it's still cold in even there may be frost there down there. and then could be really big fighting already when things begin to dry up. that's end of april. may of technically may be that spring, but that's already really the summer campaign. and if nothing happens to a drastic right now in the coming 2 weeks, that means everyone's going to be moving and thinking about the summer, big summer summer campaign and preparing more says and reserves, which is happening basically right now. there's also lots of this information being sent around by all sides because war is deceit. none that anyone, everyone who wants to attack will will try to convince everyone else if he is not that are all of the leper 2 tanks is that have been pledged. it's expected that they may start arriving in 2 to 3 months. i believe. um is that timeline realistic

because it's not just about delivery of the tanks. it's also about training. it's about setting up italians. i mean, is all this talk right now about when these tanks will get there? is that actually realistic? do you think that's going to happen according to this timeline? so what, what have been recorded yesterday, or was that the training of soldiers and the build up of the repair facilities actually were installed as of right now. so therefore, expect and we will have training facilities prepared, i think in poland and fin and, and other places. and so, and it takes up to 4 to 6 weeks as i learned for, for so just to be trained on the, on the lever tanks on the delivery. yeah. no one knows for sure. as you, i think, quoted before, and the new defense minister said maybe mid and march might be realistic. so it's hard to say and as public rightly said, so the question is,

what spring looks like this year in ukraine? and indeed, so no one knows by that, but at least they will start immediately with building up all the facilities because it's way more than just delivering the tangs. it's all about munition and all this reconstruction repair facilities on the ground, theresa, president biden has said that this move should not be seen by russia as an offensive thread. um. but when the us tanks arrive and, and when the german tanks arrive, at what point does this have the potential to become an open and direct armed conflict between the west and and moscow in ukraine? we think everyone is very cautious about that. i sit here in brussels and clearly it's not nato getting involved with this. european member states or other european states are getting involved by sending support to ukraine. so it's not a needle lead initiative so that let's make that clear. and i think that, you know,

we see the central eastern european number states completely supportive of ukraine sending whatever they can is tony was sending how it search just to show and tried to shame germany into sending agreeing to send the leopard. so i think that it really depends where you sit in europe, how you see this. and i think we should also look at it in a positive. you can look at the glass is half empty or half full. but the fact that germany finally did come to this decision, i think, is really a very important sign of continued support for ukraine. but they need even more than what it sounds like. 14 leopards isn't going to do the trick. and so i love that word of the russian word for general mud rough to deep. so the puzzle was speaking about about how difficult it is to fight in the mighty spring. there have been there's a great deal concern about where russia is going to get these troops. are they just

going to clear issue of lack of morale, the ukrainians have thought better than anyone imagined? they're highly motivated and maybe that they can even scope down the, the training period for the use of the tanks. but they really do require a lot of things that they are to win not just survived. so i think that there is a new feeling that after the rental meeting, that they have to win, not just, you know, carry on indefinitely. and i think that the longer this goes on, this whole kind of china, russia alliance convenient however you want to describe it. it is going to hurt china over the longer term. oh you, you spoke earlier about how difficult all this was for chancellor schultz politically at some point in the last few days, he acknowledged that many germans are deeply concerned by this decision to send tanks to ukraine. i want to speak for more about how much concern there is in

germany about this and where public opinion stands on it. mazily. he made yesterday an appearance in front of the parliament, and he closed his statement in which she then announced that germany world sent the 14 lepers to ukraine by addressing directly to the german people and saying, i am fully aware of your concerns. and i take this very serious, so and there you can see that he has a very good feeling and maybe he's a bad communicator when it comes to his allies and political coalition partners. but at least the people are backing on this. and if you and there was an interesting switch and public opinion, so while around the ramstein meeting and of last week. so there was a lot of criticism by a newspapers and others for why is he not saying a word wise enough training himself so and oh the we can actually that changed and more and more commentators and also people on the street. i had talked to said, i actually appreciate that he's not rushing into this because we're really afraid

of ending up in the next war with quit and, and you can see this also. it's a very german domestic debate would. but the conversation here in the beginning, we talked about defensive weapons versus offensive weapons. all weapons are weapons, so you can do anything with them. so, but it was very important for the discourse here to say, okay, we are delivering weapons and there was in the very beginning of the support for ukraine last year on february march, saying we are not answering a war. we are not interested in escalations, we're just giving them defensive weapons. they can defense themselves with the leper tangs. of course, yet they have been delivered. so president zalinski made that specific. i am sentencing, we will use this. so he gave a special interview to german and stay tv, and said we will use your leopards only to defend our country. we are not intended actually to attack rusher. so this is important for the german discourse. and this is of course, a short contingency to be honest. all right,

well we have run out of time to we're going to have to leave the conversation there . thanks so much. all of our guest power falcon howard, theresa fallon, and left bunker. and thank you for watching the can see the program again. any time by visiting our website, al jazeera dot com and for further discussion, go to our facebook page at facebook dot com forward slash ha. inside story. you can also, during the conversation on twitter handle is at ha, inside story for me. how much am jerome and the whole team here, bye for now? ah and it ruined australia the 10s of thousands of years then disappeared. now scientists,

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a 100000000000 dollar industry. over half of the countries, cocoa producers live below the poverty line on al jazeera i will just 0 when i feel of an escalation in violence after israeli forces.