go to school. we ask why. because education makes the world more just. make up your own mind. w. me for mind. you. this is our land we will be defending them if they have crossed that border what do you think the west would have done for you our judicial system is in bad shape america's secretary of state constantly blinkered was in ukraine last week the same apparent need to offer words of comfort and support for the country after russian troops have masti the huge numbers close to the border my guest this week from p.s.v. ukraine's foreign minister did meet through coolly about what did he get out of the visit and what with you to get.

to meet your courtly about welcome to conflict zone good afternoon the u.s. secretary of state was visiting. last week and said he stands strongly with your country what do you understand that to mean standing strongly with you that means political. and military and reforms our support for ukraine we count on our partnership with the united states as much as we count on the partnership with the european union and its key capitals your president was clear that he wanted more than that a few days before being going to arrive to posted a tweet calling for a clear signal about the european and euro atlantic prospect in other words a clear signal about your big for membership in the e.u.

or nato did you get back clear signal. well both perspectives of your atlantic and european membership are long over due and i would like to recall that for example when it comes to nato the promise was given by elyse in 2008 before a summit so we've been it's been 13 years now and my president reiterated the ambition to achieve that we have not heard affirmative positive response yet but this is you know we aspirants we are seeking membership so we will keep pushing this story forward so you didn't get what you wanted so in effect mr blinken just bought a basket of fine words and that was it. i know it would be not entirely correct mr blinking with others not entirely but there is some truth

to it. well he did not bring with himself a promise that ukraine will become a member of nato this year or next year but he reaffirmed that the united states stand by the decision of 2008 where it states clearly ukraine and georgia because it applies to both countries will be members of nato and we will be working with our friends and partners on achieving this goal but the problem is without a timetable it's meaningless isn't it well what we need we currently have a timetable which is called national program of cooperation between ukraine and nato it is structured very much. along the pattern of the membership action plan but what we do need and i can agree with you here is a clear timeline of grain to create

a membership action plan and what will follow after that this is the next step in our integration with the alliance how far did you get with your shopping list because you are known to be looking for enhanced and you drone and the aircraft capabilities you also want the patriot missile is washington going to meet those requests while we submit to the united states a list of. the most urgent needs for ukrainian army some of the items on the list are more easier to get some are more difficult we do not expect to get everything at a time but we are making progress on those items and on those positions which. which are feasible at this at this point you say you're making progress or you didn't get any of them you haven't signed any deals to get them it's not it's not fixed. mr secretary blinken did not brink and understand our complex with him

but. no nor is there that he was going to give you one either nor a date i have no doubt that we will we will receive and number of items from all this this does not require a reiteration it's a mental matter of cooperation of sorcery and technicalities but i have no doubt that we will give them this global let's talk if we may about the frozen war in the eastern part of your country if we can talk about it that way there's been some the escalation in tension with moscow it withdrew many of its troops after the sudden massive deployment close to your joint border if they had crossed that border what do you think the west would have done for you expressions of condemnation maybe some sanctions well 1st there is no withdrawal adequate. to the number of russian troops and military

machinery assembled along the border of ukraine and in the occupied territories what is happening cannot be called it was that all russian forces largely stay where they are what has changed is a drop in military forex this is true but the threat is still there and you know in the soviet union they had to show trials trials without justice and now what we observe is that the show was draw it was draw without removal of forces and this we should be we should be should remain vigilant on this when it comes to your 2nd question is this this is our lens this is our our people we will defend it we will fight for it we do not expect foreign troops to arrive and help us but we do expect from partners to provide ukraine with all assistance they can offer to make us prevail in this struggle for our country so you're not expecting

nato to go to war with you with russia you're clear on that to defend you. absolutely we are not a member of nato yet and i would like to see again clearly and squarely that this is our land we will be defending it but partners can help us to defend our land and i'm sure that this is what will this will be happening when it comes to negotiations your president has made it clear he no longer thinks the minsk 2 agreement is laid down 6 years ago is the way forward is that because neither you nor the russians know the separatists that actually done what you signed up to do. well the key demand off russia in minsk is to recognize so-called lugansk and honest people's republic as party to the conflict

which would effectively turn an international armed conflict between ukraine and russia into an internal armed conflict between ukraine and separatists this is the cornerstone of the discussions that are taking place in. in minsk now my president is saying that alf goal number one should be peace and security and lives of people and not the political political recognitions and we call on moscow to focus on the same on bringing peace to the must and on making progress on a number of drug decisions which are ready to be adopted they are pending green light from moscow moscow can easily give the green light but it continues playing this game with the demand to recognize donetsk and lugansk as part of the conflict so this is in essence what is happening in minsk and this is why we are making

steps to. ensure a way forward out of this stalemate the mid to agreement is you know contains political commitments on you and on the other side article for a dialogue on local elections was supposed to start the day after heavy weapons were pulled back from the contact ploy article 11 the new ukrainian constitution should have entered into force by the end of 2015 its key element was to have been decentralization none of these things happened did any child blame the other for not fulfilling their side of the bargain where do you go from here. you're absolutely right this is this is the works toward by worth russian narrative about means. when moscow a meets the fact that item paragraph one of means kiss security 1st you stop shooting and then you proceed to political settlement ukraine spared

no effort and made a number of painful concessions to ensure a cease fire unfortunately the cease fire has been violated on a systemic basis and more and more and many korean soldiers have been killed. i would like to assure you that we are absolutely committed to moving along the political part of the of the minsk of the minsk agreements you really think through security 1st do you think you can get those through your parliament those political aspects of the mr green well if we see if we see that russia is not killing our soldiers is withdrawing its heavy machine heavy military machinery from ukraine and that it abides by security provisions this will give us an additional argument in the parliament to convince that this is the road to peace this is the road to settlement and this is what my parliament wants but we will never accept any russian idea of federalize ation of ukraine because.

in this country we have a very advanced reform of decentralization and by the way i would like to thank the government of germany in helping us with this reform to really empower communities on the ground and to give them more right right and when certain regions of donetsk and lugansk parts of ukraine which are currently occupied by russia to return to ukraine they will enjoy all those vast possibilities for development and prosperity yeah but why does your president very he's not going to talk to them russia says talk to the separatists your president refuses i'm curious as to why he refuses because the people in donetsk and lugansk are still ukrainian citizens aren't they why is your president refusing to talk to ukrainian if he wants that area back under his control my president will talk to legitimately elected ukrainians in the currently occupied parts of donetsk and lugansk will not talk to holders of

russian passports who vigorously in the implement only instructions coming from moscow. we should not mix these 2 categories of. when we hold elections as provided by the minsk agreements when there are legitimately elected representatives they will be become part of the political system and we will talk to them but today the only party that makes decisions and instructs people on the ground how to act is moscow it's not these so-called separatists yes but this process is going nowhere isn't it and the fact is that you're out of ideas for how to pursue it something that the president's chief of staff actually admitted at the end of last month under your mike on television he said it's necessary to continue working in all directions and they all formats because in the end we don't know

what format will bring peace to our alliance 7 years after the seizure of crimea that's an extraordinary admission of both failure and despair isn't it you don't know how to continue. there is no fate neither fairly or no despair in kiev we have. well we are upset with the behavior of moscow with this unwillingness to play constructively interest peeper kate sincere willingness of ukraine and of germany and france to put an end to the war in donbas when it comes to crimea you know we launched we came up with a very good idea of a crimea platform and they say this initiative is gathering more and more international support so now we are not running out of ideas but unfortunately russia has adopted a very. very unhelpful tactics of simply

downplaying every any idea that if they do not like or ignoring them but will keep trying because as i said just a couple of minutes before this is all when we cannot sit down with and lay down our hands we have to come up we have new ideas we have to be creative and we will be doing that this is all then to and it may take some time but in the end we will succeed the fact is that your president was elected 2 years ago on a promise to end the war in the donbass region he didn't do it even blamed the continuing conflict on its previous president poroshenko saying it wasn't russian aggression that was the problem it was the ukrainian side being unreasonable that came back to bite him as well didn't it the fact he's over promised and under the livered that's the biggest sin the politician can commit isn't it well my president still has a couple of years in office to deliver on that and. before the end of his 1st term . the 2nd point is that in just 1st year of his presidency there were

some very good achievements in our relations with russia and they were promising for example the exchange of prisoners including the return of the famous director or all extenso who was a political prisoner in russia russia returned our vessels captured. the carriage straight so there was a good period now there is a better period but it doesn't mean that we will not find a solution that will bring very good period and we will find we will settle the conflict without crossing our red lines this girl labor it's clear that if you want more help from washington in the west you're going to have to do more to deal with the rampant political corruption in your country aren't you the state department says that's key to securing ukraine's democratic institutions its economic prosperity and your atlantic future every year the same message from the

u.s. from europe year after year why are you not doing better on this front. well 1st we're doing it for ourselves not for the sake of support when you're not. doing you're not doing it at all you're not getting to grips with corrupt while you are in your country you are you are your spirit you are either misinformed or exaggerating it was under the present of. under the present selenski that the anti-corruption court finally started functioning in ukraine and it was a very long battle to set up that court and make it operational unfortunately the previous president did not allow that to happen presidents lansky did and he does not interfere in the operations of the court when they can see to tional court of ukraine another body of our judicial system to try to destroy an anti-corruption

reform it was the president who stepped in immediately and then if he was followed by the government and the parliament who restored parts of critical legislation that was declared and void now and void by by the constitution of course things are happening and you know every country is is a difficult combination of various factors but this country is moving in the right direction and those who are calling on us to move faster they cordially invited to come and join us and help us well those who are you are called yearly inviting with those who were there last week if you look at the state department human rights report the latest one what's clear is that what's damaging western confidence in you is this continual drumbeat of human rights abuses that are reported in your country as pointed out in the latest human rights report from washington the concern that highlighted is not just the abuse that the corruption the abuse or

torture that's carried out by state employees in your security service not mad enough but the impunity that surrounds them the fact they can. or with a pretty strong assurance that they'll get away with it are you happy about that when it comes to human rights abuses in security institutions you know this is something that is not just neither systemic nor large scale and unfortunately to my deepest regret present and not only in ukraine but also in other countries of europe will follow recommendations of the european committee against torture on that and we enjoy excellent cooperation with them otherwise i do not understand what kind of systemic violations of human rights you are referring though it's quite clear in the report the report says abuse of detainees remains a widespread problem the government generally failed to take adequate steps to prosecute or punish most officials who committed abuses most officials resulting in

a climate of impunity that couldn't be clearer could it that's from your friends in washington. you are probably you are referring to the situation in prisons with regard to the imprisoned. imprisoned persons this is a big scorch not only for ukraine but also for other european countries but. this is not a large scale systemic oppression of human rights happening across the country as i said to you answering my previous question we are absolutely calculating with all human rights bodies including the council of europe and the european union to address outstanding issues related to the treatment of prisoners in. prisons one of the other key issues which has been raised by washington is the low level of confidence reported in your judges the us says that despite efforts to

reform the judiciary and the prosecutor general's office corruption among judges and prosecutors remained in demick in demick why is it that you're absolutely why you have italy or when you have labeled a guarantee the rule of law in your country. well 1st rule of law and judiciary is not the same thing traditionally it is part of the rule of law and there is a rule of law in this country but the one of the weakest point that requires. systemic attention is judiciary our judicial system is in bad shape i can fully agree with that it's i as a citizen i regret it. and the president and the government and the parliament they are all addresses this issue in close touch aeration with our international partners and the venice commission of the council of europe because

we all realize that judiciary is an essential important element for foreign investments and for bringing also for for for bringing justice to the country for for protecting human rights in the country so we are addressing it this problem through a set of reforms conducted in the closest possible cooperation was international institutions and international partners the state department says some judges were pressured by high level politicians others reportedly took bribes in exchange for giving particular verdicts if they're found to be breaking the law like that why can't they be removed from office i'm not aware of any report that a member of the government or the president's office would be pressuring pressuring . a judicial quarter or a judge quite to the contrary as some of the. elements of the ukrainian

judiciary are putting pressure on the government and on by issue. illegitimate judgments in particular the one that i mentioned the judgment of the constitutional court the right to destroy the anticorruption the reform that was. designed and implemented by ukraine and his friends and partners from abroad but i'm sure that there will come this problem as well because no corrupt judge can succeed against the government and the people of ukraine that are willing to overcome the resolve and overcome this problem what about the press journalists who are feeling the heat in your country when they deal with sensitive topics washington says violence against the breast remained a problem with human rights groups blaming government inaction in solving crimes against them why this action on the part of the government well the problem of

press should be considered from 2 sides on the one side it's the problem of this information flowing into the country and spreading it around among among citizens this is something that the government should be addressing and is addressing to ensure security of the country on the other hand. we do have to ensure the freedom of speech and we are absolutely committed to it. and of course to ensure safety of journalists i'm not aware of any recent cases where government agents or a representative for someone associated with the government would be conducting would be suppressing freedom of speech in fact. the criticism against the president the parliament the government as a whole is the coming from many many media corners and that's normal because we

live in a democracy and the it's a vibrant and there are many different opinions all these can can exist can and should exist and if. democratic country however we will not allow. this information specifically coming from russian media to. destroy our people's most people's minds is the question is also to what extent you're protecting your journalist because the state department report mentioned a journalist from her ahmad scale who was beaten by a police officer while he was filming protests in front of a government building that was april last year 7 months later the state bureau of investigations was still quote looking into it is that good enough as far as you're concerned well if we start picking up one specific case and focus on it of course this situation will look at doom and gloom i. am aware of this case i find it

disturbing as well and i stand on the on the side of a journalist in this particular case but please do not try to create a picture of a doom and gloom picture but not only i'm not granting any cases staking out taken out of the context now we're in a in a dialogue with you i'm just trying to make the point yes i'm not creating any any image that hasn't been reflected in the state department human rights report just one final question you talk about how your protecting your country and you talk about getting your land back do you seriously imagine a day when the russians will say to you sorry we took crimea big mistake have it back what has that train left the station well did you imagine that the soviet union was one would seriously say eastern germany can go back to germany and reunite again i'm sure that if your leadership and your politicians never imagined that they would never succeed. mr cornerback been

a pleasure having you thank you very much thank you.

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is t w news coming to you live from fierce fighting between israeli forces and palestinian militants shows no sign of letting up the. israeli airstrikes pound targets in gaza while hamas launches hundreds of rockets into israel and there's a new front in the conflict violence between jewish and arab neighbors inside israel also coming up. from inside an isolated refugee detention camp in greece.