let's get around up of our top story. mariupol, a theater destroyed. the number of casualties is not yet known. russian rockets hit a convoy fleeing the city earlier, injuring five people. the u.s. embassy in says russian forces have shot several ukrainians. the international court of justice has ordered russia to immediately cease military

operations in ukraine. president joe biden announced the u.s. will give ukraine $800 million worth military hardware. he called vladimir putin a war criminal after ukraine's president vladimir made an impassioned plea to american politicians to do more to protect his country. pres. zelenskyy: friends, americans, in your history, you have pages that allow you to understand ukrainians. remember pearl harbor, the terrible morning of december 7, 19 41, when your skies turned. black from planes attacking. . remember september 11, that day in 2001 tried -- when innocent people were attacked from the air. you cannot stop it. our country is experiencing the same every day, every night for three weeks. > president putin says western sanctions against russia will backfire. >> in a very cowardly way, there

are cowards who have let down their partners. the actions against russia will be noticed and we will do what we can to make sure that the new package of sanctions against russia will be met by our leaders against them. >> 2 other news, two british iranians are on their way back to the u.k. from iran after years of detention. he was convicted in 2016 a plotting to overthrow the government, but always denied the allegations. those are the headlines. top stories next. >> date is long planned arctic exercise has taken on new significance athe war rages in ukraine, the largest since the cold war. stay with al jazeera for the latest of elements as 35,000 troops from 20 eight innocent countries demonstrate their abilities in a region already on edge. >> how does the media you russia's war in ukraine?

competing narratives fight for coverage in print, on air, and online. are we getting at accurate picture of what is happening in the conflict? this is inside story. ♪ >> welcome to the program. it is often said that the first casualty of war is the truth. the media is a battleground for competing narratives on russia's invasion of ukraine. images of destruction and civilians suffering dominating worldwide headlines but both sides accuse each other of disinformation. take the russian airstrike that destroyed a maternity hospital in mariupol last week. three people died in what western leaders call a war crime, but russia accused ukraine of staging the attack.

in a now deleted tweet, the russian embassy in london accused this woman of being a crisis actor, who was paid to play a victim. the ukrainian and russian presidents project different images of themselves. volodymyr zelensky kids daily updates on social media, dressed in green army t-shirts. that has boosted his popularity among ukrainians to nearly 90%. in contrast, russia's vladimir putin is mostly seen in official videos sitting far away from government advisors. an editor on russian state tv was fine for interrupting a news broadcast with her, media mostly repeats the kremlin's message of what a caused a special military operation. journalists who call it a war or invasion face 15 years in prison. independent outlets have been shut down. facebook and instagram are blocked. 58% of russians support invasion , according to a survey last week.

♪ >> let's bring in our guest in western ukraine. a ukrainian journalist and a nonresident fellow at the center for european policy analysis. in london, nikolai petro, a senior research fellow at the russia immigration program at a think tank. in berlin, markets, professor of journalism at the university of applied sciences. welcome to you all and i can for joining us today on inside story. let me start with you today. from your vantage point in western ukraine, do you believe most of the world is getting an accurate picture of what is happening in the conflict? >> you know, it is difficult to generalize, right? we cannot speak about the cold war and there are specific differences in every region. as a journalist, i'm speaking to many media from different countries, just today heading to media from south korea to india,

australia, israel, and the united arab emirates. i can also see the difference in the kinds of questions that i am getting and all the concerns that are different in different countries and the accents that have put differently. as a journalist, i can say that my colleagues are doing an amazing job here in ukraine, trying to report on what is happening from ukraine, and extremely difficult circumstances for journalists -- circumstances. for journalists have been killed in ukraine and i know two of them personally and it breaks my heart to know that so many of my colleagues though through harms risks because civilians are deliberately targeted and journalists are targeted, to prevent the world from knowing what is happening here, to intimidate media and journalists from reporting on the ground in ukraine, so i want to commend courageous colleagues for increasing reporting from ukraine, from hotspots such as

kyiv, kharkiv, mario paul, and i want to stress coming forward and this information is unbiased reporting, especially in this era of so many fakes and disinformation coming from the russian side. >> i want to turn the viewers' attention specifically to russia and i want to ask you about russians watching or reading or listening to the news within russia. what are they hearing? how different is what they are hearing or seeing or reading from what most of the rest of the world is reading or seeing or hearing about the conflict in ukraine? >> i would say that russians are getting a limited picture and the images from the ukraine. shown by channels.

even social networks are closed in some cases. a problem i see is not so much the fact that there is ukraine, there are locals, and the problem i see is connected to the fact that there is a psychological barrier on the russian government, because they call it a military operation, but the majority of russians, their mindset is the army is berating brothers, companions, and psychologically, it is much more comfortable to keep this vision then to think that your state, your government is committing war crimes and you could do something by yourself.

you have a lot of cases when relatives are given calls from ukraine and they are not unde rstood by their direct relatives in russia. >> i want to talk about the study in contrast between the image projected by the ukrainian president latimer zelensky versus the image projected by russian president latimer prudent. zelensky is often seen in the social media videos unshaven. he is wearing green army t-shirts. sometimes, he is among his advisers. other times, he is on the streets. then you see vladimir putin and it is different. official videos where he is alone or saved -- seated far away from close advisors. has that helped zelensky and how much if so? >> in fact, it has helped him quite a bit. if you look at how the narrative has been shaped and framed from the ukrainian side, i think they do it very well. i am not saying they do it

always by purpose but i think they know how to convey a narrative and a certain message and i think what we are seeing here is basically a newer, modern version of david and goliath. you have this ukraine, country of 40 million, fighting an overwhelming military power in russia and we have heard latimer zelensky standing up against latimer prudent. the images are telling. you have putin sitting on a long table being untouchable and be hind the walls of the kremlin, while on the other side, zelensky is somebody who is just among his people. he is looking tired. he is looking worn, dressed in the military shirt.

he is not making things up and when it comes to authenticity, that is clearly on the side of the ukrainians. >> what do ukrainians think of how president zelensky has been presenting himself before and throughout this conflict? how much has he transformed political opinion through his style of wartime leadership. >> support has grown sharply among citizens. a poll was conducted that indicates 90% of ukrainian support, the actions of their president, before the will -- war, that was 25%. he is showing himself as a true leader of his people, a person close to his son dozens, does not keep a distance, and speaking to them directly,

recording video statements, several times a day, speaking in a language that people understand, addressing not just ukrainians but russians and -- in their own land, calling on russian mothers to take their sons away from ukraine, calling the russians to go protest, media workers standing up saying the truth, so zelensky is communicating efficiently and rallying the people around him but i would also say that it is not just zelensky who is leading the country -- and inspiring ukrainians. it is the other way around. ukrainians have incredible courage and determination, inspiring zelensky to lead the country and to speak for all the people and we hear that just today speech, he has said i'm speaking on behalf of the ukrainian people and this is something that a lot of

ukrainians share the appreciation that he is not detached from his people. the whole country is speaking in one voice. >> there are surveys that have been done in russia that suggest the majority of russians support the invasion of ukraine, but can this polling actually be trusted? is it independent? >> there are no independent polls these days, first. second, keep in mind -- [indiscernible] the problem is that nevertheless, the majority of russians somehow remain solely focused on the fact that their country deeply acts as a bastion

against fascists and nazis and out --that is how the story is resented by russia media. they do support the president -- their president. [indiscernible] generally speaking, russians especially, keep in mind it is a minority who are protesting against the war. many of them left from the country. >> president putin has, for quite a while now, several years, had this reputation as a wizard of information warfare. he has a reputation as someone

who has successfully been able to recognize social media and other types of information. is it surprising to you to see how this is playing out thus far? >> he has successfully interfered in the elections, trying to turn public opinion in germany and the united states. he is failing here and one of the things that will not play out very well for the russians is the use of certain language, a look at the use of fascism and nazis. putin was saying we have to go into ukraine to do not suffice ukraine -- nezaify ukraine. the president of ukraine is of jewish origin so how can a jew be a nazi?

it is a distortion of all houston no and this narrative is not -- all we used to know in the narrative is not playing into his hands. from the western perspective, it could be conceded this way. it is not me russians are going along with that. i think he still has a lot of support and i'm not really sure the majority of russians are looking the array. >> you have spoken about the fact that from your perspective, it is not just volodymyr zelensky who has been inspiring the people but also the people of ukraine who have been inspiring president zelensky. i want to ask you if you think that in the lead up to the invasion and the lead up to the war, if the reporting from foreign countries was mostly accurate. do you think that ukrainian voices were really being listened to? >> in fact, it is from one

country to another but some major countries of the eu i can speak for italy. it is also the case in germany and france and other big countries. those geopolitics experts have never set foot in ukraine and they described the situation and spoke about ukraine for the russian optics using some sort of pressure narrative but ukraine very often denying agency to ukrainians. it was very rare and still quite where -- rare to hear ukrainian voices in mainstream media. i think a big problem is that in the last eight years since russia first invaded in 2014, very few in the west listen to

what ukrainians were saying. very few listen to the warnings and if prudent does not stop and russia does not get punished and there is no strong reaction, putin will not stop and will only escalate his aggression. the same people or some of them, who didn't listen to ukrainian and other eastern and central europeans, are finally meeting but isn't it too late? >> we have spoken a lot about the clampdown on independent media outlets in russia. this week, there was an interruption of a news broadcast on russian television by an editor who shared an antiwar message and i want to ask you if you think this would make any kind of an impact with viewers who have been endured -- inured to people who have only been watching russian television in the particular narrative.

where they have found this surprising? would it help to change perceptions in any way? >> i think that what is very brave action is humane and of course, it is very important not only to demonstrate that some journalists and some of them -- journalists do not think -- they do demonstrate. somehow, we can send a signal -- is possible to find almost anything in the internet these

days. [indiscernible] is an extremely comfortable -- uncomfortable position and it is changing for appearances, but also the fact that a lot of celebrities are openly protesting against the war. the fact that russians, the investigation is changing and that is why they should change their minds and opinions. this means that putin is leaving it in kind. he should do something that will stop the situation deteriorating inside the country. [indiscernible] >> for those who believe that

president zelensky and therefore ukraine are winning this information war, is that also create a perception that ukraine may be doing better on the actual battlefield than they are ? >> well, i mean, if you believe what military experts are saying, i think ukraine is doing very well on the ground when it comes to making the advances hard for the russian military. i think that is a fact that is not really that much influenced by the media appearance. i have to admit actually from perspective as a journalist professor. the matter of concern is the fact that journalism doesn't

play that much of a role. we give videos directly into our social media and twitter accounts, which come right out from the president's palace in kyiv or from other places without any journalistic kind of assessment and orientation. this is not a new problem but it is laying out here so we are seeing things and have to make ourselves what we are seeing. it is context. >> i'm sorry to interrupt but you have an interesting point. is it harder now than it was a few years back to pass off false information or fake videos? has online verification of footage, has that entire dusty entirety of that been strengthened of late? >> absolutely. it has become so difficult and as much as we sympathize with one side or the other, i think

journalists are required to take the footage and tried to figure out whether this is true or not. please allow me to say one word. having been a journalist myself and covered from moscow, i can tell you the german media is about pressure, which is always a very disputed fact. i think when it comes to russia, german media is very critical and not prove putin. >> from your perspective, how prominent a role have disinformation fighters online been playing in all of this? >> i think what this war, many people in the west underestimate the prominence and the impact and the scope russian propaganda

and disinformation. i am finally starting to realize it. the case in point is the pregnant woman from mario pull -- mariupol it was filmed by the associated press after the bombing of the hospital and we saw the attacks of several russians to say she was a crisis after wearing makeup and was not actually pregnant. twitter took down those posts and we have seen new footage several days after that. she actually gave birth to her baby. her relatives sent me the photos. per many, that case is something -- an eye-opener. many people did not believe russians could be lying that much. this russian officials are lying on the highest level. this russian propaganda and disinformation consists of so many layered, starting from the

troll and bought forms on social media such as twitter and fa cebook and russian state media inside russia. russian state media that are not broadcasting for audiences such as rt and a lot of also conspiracy, propaganda, disinformation websites in many countries. sometimes notches news about russia or ukraine. they might be sharing anti-vaccine disinformation or different conspiracy theories. i hope this war brings more awareness of the level of the governments in the world and the level of the media who find it hard to establish what is right and what is wrong or what is true and what is not. >> i am sorry to interrupt. if i could ask you -- we have a minute and a half. the way it has played out, has

it defied your expectations about how rome mind world fair -- how online warfare plays out typically? >> this was not new for me because i have researched disinformation for more than two years. my career in journalism brought me to this because i encountered so many disinformation and how it affects people's lives on the ground so i researched it and i think this is a role for many journalists across the world and many media to focus on that more to understand how disinformation works and the real-life impact and how it can fuel wars. it eight years of redundant russian tv contributes to that as well. >> we have run out of time so we will have to leave the conversation but thank you to our guests. thank you for watching. see the program again any time by visiting our website aljaz eera.com. go to aj inside story on

facebook. our handle is at a.j. inside story on twitter. bye for now. ♪ íñíñ

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