violent clashes in central kiev as ukrainian police barricades and a fourth day of anti-government protests two people have died so far. the crisis is being fueled by nationalists and radicals keen to grab the opportunity to push for a revolution. syria's government and opposition sit face to face for the first time since the start of the conflict but the beginning of long anticipated peace talks in switzerland have exposed the parties very different views of the future.

this is r.t. international live from studio center here in moscow was just turned ten pm and eight pm in kiev where two people have died in anti-government protests in the ukrainian capital and a fourth consecutive day of violence police have torn down barricades in the center of the city and chased and the retaliation of protesters has been equally as forceful. is there for us. i can see from my vantage point that. several hundred protesters are moving into the square the numbers are not receding here it's still pretty much i would say maybe several thousand people of protesters and riot just over here knowing flash bangs bullets of cocktails rocks at the police can't see if these project i was actually reaching the police line because of this black smoke as i've said it's a very difficult situation for teeth i would never expect and i would have to wear a bulletproof vest and a helmet in the iranian capital the negotiations with the president have members of

the opposition have already concluded no comments came out of them which is definitely a warning sign and we are now anxiously anticipating a press conference by the opposition to a little too early several hours ago and filed this report i saw the first wave of protests this off of the police trying to push the protesters off the square let's have a look at the forefront now. so this is yet another attempt by the police to push the protest this off the governmental quarter they've just started moving as we can see they're covering themselves with shields the protesters the rioters are running back but they're still throwing rocks at the police it is very violent here we see that flash bangs are being exploded. from time to time although the police are not resorting to any kind of special mean so far they haven't even youth last bangs or non-lethal non-lethal form as far as we could see over here they've been waiting

basically for hours for several hours before attempting another another go at the protesters we also heard earlier from the prime minister of ukraine who said that old those writing in the central kiev are considered to be terrorists and will soon heard from the some of the official some behind the barricades from the police lines who have been saying that. they will use force if need. and this is the case as we can see right now from our vantage point. the pair of the police are now in full in full swing this to get the protesters who are still here pluming rocks and and move the cocktails at them. we can see this literally maybe several hundred policemen. and. they will soon as we can hear banging their shields to give a proper psychological effect so that the protesters may be more scared but now we can see there are no protesters remaining at the scene of the riots which has been

the scene on the right for the past four days already thats it. the protesters have been pushed off from the governmental quarter several police lines and you can see one police line the other police line they're now securing the perimeter no major violence as we could see no. major violence from the police in fact i would say no violence from the police at all we can see the cops the police are not advancing to the independence square which is literally two hundred meters away from here they're not advancing they're just basically what they're doing they're securing this ground here that the governmental quarter pushed the rioters from the scene and what they're doing the just securing it here now so they're quick clearly they're not intending to disperse the big protests the protests that the independence square the one which has been existing for several months already there we have rocks flying at the plant at the police again the protesters the rioters are back are back as we can see and there can also see another wounded

person being carried it is getting violent again although this time it's quite clear that the violence is coming from the protesters from the rioters not from the police the police is merely protecting themselves we can see a moment of cocktail there on the ground as well. again most of cocktails are being thrown rocks are being thrown that the police. so this is look this looks like yet another yet another retreat by the police. and the protesters are demanding again the rioters are bringing tires probably they will burn them and heard them at the police like they've done on several occasions already. they're charging they're charging again at the police as we can see throwing rocks all the time. they're not correspondent peter all over he's also there in kiev closely following

the events as they unfold and here's how he was caught up in a surge of raw police here. well i'm currently stood between independence square area in front of the economic stadium. european square where there is a standoff again between riot is and riot police there's a line of fire a wall of fire separating the two that's being set alight by the by the riots is burning tires and thick black acrid smoke separating the two sides there's a steady stream of people moving from independence square over to where the flash point is currently is currently and what we're seeing is those people are coming they're carrying a lot of of rudimentary weapons some have helmet saved some with homemade body armor we've seen them carrying the likes of of clubs i am balls bits of paving stone that they've been breaking up there's been a real operation going on among the rioters to to break up paving stones to provide

them with rocks to hurl at the at the police and then getting them over to what is really now the front line and they say this clash between rioters and riot police no earlier on in the day the right police to clear everybody out of the area that's just behind me over there now while they were doing i was in the sky on the street at the time and we we were able to to fit catch on film exactly what was going on what we've seen is a series of explosions going off or believe police are trying to clear out the square as you can see a lot of people we're going to be moving this way a son it comes the cover of i can move to the left here and yes shoot crowds of people as they're going to try to get away from those barricades that were were up there can i please moving in with actually place the moving in there very very. they're pushing back very forcefully here. hopefully we're going to be going to be fine where we are police have moved everybody off those barricades moved everybody away from where they were almost our case you know we're going to have to get

inside now we're going to. we have to we're going to go inside. to get out of the way of what's going on this is that. the police have decided that they are they getting rid of and they're clearing out everything that was at those barricades this has been the position of such a a standoff between writers and the police. of c. the police deciding that it was time to to put an end to that into into clear people out we saw a huge wave of people huge huge wave of people fleeing from those barricades and as police try to to disperse stores oh that's. oh that is that is. to say a policeman no hitting a somebody who's on the floor right there repeatedly beating that person so yes the police have now cleared out all the way some explosions you can hear that we've had to come inside to the hotel which is nearby where those barricades were.

in order to to get away from from what was going on. there are some wounded demonstrators some people who'd been beaten as the police have now completely cleared all of that area away this all happened very very quickly it all happened in a space of just a few minutes we heard a few loud explosions i believe they were. they were noise grenades that were flash bang grenades and then a charge by the police which is completely cleared out that whole area of where demonstrators police have been in a standoff for the last the last few days but all of this does seem that it's set to continue for a while yet will be trying to get back out there as soon as it's it's safe for us to do so to see what's going on. where they were located. but yes it is now seeing demonstrators trying to move back into territory that they were just expelled from by the by the riot police well that was the scene earlier on wednesday right now

well the rioters have reoccupied those barricades and as i say they're separated from the police now by a wall of fire from those tires and other things that they're burning and they're continuing to arrive. peter all of a very well part of central kiev resemble a battlefield right now so here's a look at exactly where the events were describing it taking place this puts it in perspective for you now this is. a street is a very long street there in the city it's been at the center of much of the recent violence and it's here that has seen the fiercest clashes between rioters and police in just the last few days including today when police managed to push the the rioters up the street towards european square which is up here and this is where we are seeing the tires burning right now that burning wall of flames and artie's ski is there at the moment somewhere in the midst of all that black smoke and also reporter peter oliver who you saw just a moment ago he is

a little way back on european square there north of my down square that independence square now that is where the main body of the anti-government protesters have been camped out for several months now and they're still there in great numbers while at the moment two hundred policemen have been injured during the riots they've suffered fractures head injuries burns stabbings and indeed gas poisoning more than eighty have been hospitalized financial commentator patrick young says the rioters attacking the security forces of a few reasonable arguments and compares them to an organized terrorist group. in kiev we certainly see a large number of protesters but do they really reflect the viewpoints of the entirety of ukraine well i don't think that's the case intimately we have this tragic situation where the ultras affectively a thuggish element to seem to have links to very extremist politics in many cases i mean some of them are natural socialists or fascist some of them probably have some

sort of harkening towards communism certainly they're not the sort of normal average everyday people who really can be reasoned with these sorts of people existed all societies the truth is that normally when you have a reasonable rule of law you can manage to keep everything going from day to day on occasions of these sort of fringes where their views have been inflamed unfortunately by interventions from the european union and the united states of america which i think are wholly unreasonable in the domestic politics of ukraine and you will see them try and rise up under dede those people are rather extreme some of them have very very ugly views indeed and of course they're demonstrating it through the violence that they're propagating on the innocent people of kiev and ukraine at this moment is not a huge majority movement demanding change it is ultimately a very well organized terrorist rabble. well let's now talk about the tactics used by the ukrainian rock police with simon for he's

a retired senior officer from london's metropolitan police side now what do you make of the methods used by the riot police there in kiev well it's always a very difficult scenes and obviously that situation is very quickly got out of control and what i thought was interesting was the way that it was described as being relatively peaceful one minute and then probably violent it was ordered to it and never. i guess really this is where the police somehow are standing between the tension between letting people have longer protests which i think everybody wants to do but the minute it starts becoming violent where the old texts are then they have no option and to react sometimes in the way they did but we of course all those rights in longer and the mess it's employed there by you the police there in london any different to the way that you would have approached it in kiev yes i you know the british police are fundamentally different in that our tactics are he attended the that wherever possible we will get out as close to demonstrators in the slowest instance and our experience over here is that if you're close to people

when they're in that peaceful mode so to speak then actually we find that that tends to inhibit violent behavior from attacking and we can get to people pretty quickly if everyone's aware are starting the disturbance and either what with what police on the continent do an argument has been done is they always keep a certain distance between themselves and the right is probably for their own safety for then to allow them to deploy as they have done the other tactics. so i think the only different you'd see is right at the beginning of course there's going to markets british police chucked out quite close to the demonstrators in an effort to keep it from going down with the gong and you talk about that peaceful time and yet the u.s. and the e.u. have been very critical of the way the their forces of handle the situation. during that peaceful time it looked as if the the police were very patient did that actually give more time for the protesters to prepare and if we didn't see the

building catapult step what was that valuable time lost but again it is you know it's a that's and that's a you know that's a that's a really look we're patient you know that sort of thing that at least seven police the world like to be seen to do because after all you know people are legitimately protesting you know whatever the source of the protest is people around the world should have a right to protest and make their views known and peacefully so if you like if the police officers are actually taking a role in it just making sure that background peacefully for as long as possible when that's a good thing what about the guardian when we see the likes of molotov cocktails and knives indeed even gas being used to attack the riot police what what the british authorities say to you in instructing you how to handle that sort of situation well you've seen enough illness but in this past week actually there's been a bit of a debate by caused by the fact that my colleagues in the metro employees of

actually made the suggestion to the american wonder when i was unsupported by the home office that we should have tactics like water cannon because once that situation does get out of control like that well then those two criteria and the thirst they can restore peace quick quickly in whatever way you can get the demonstrators moved along broken up. and then primarily there the second part of means is to do so as safely as possible for the public first but then to the offices second so i think you know in some ways when you get back to great environments be nice against police officers in many ways it's not surprising that they have reacted as diggers leaders they have when it's not very nice it doesn't look very good and indeed a lot of the face khalid's and give them a very unfortunately been injured as well well that's why i was going to ask you that i mean you're talking. the safety of the police officers but they have incurred a lot of injuries are they well prepared are they well equipped of that sort of

number of injuries surprise you again. you know sadly intense violence like backs now it doesn't surprise me because when events with that degree of violence being shown towards the police act you know sadly and unfortunately and tragically and again all over the world police officers will get the most circumstances where they get in the u.k. we've made great efforts recently to with other officers with appropriate footprint protective helmet soft foods overalls and also the we try and ploy them in methods where they're aware that they don't for instance going too far apart from each other because lots of injuries occur when you're on the ground so as far as possible the police officers should try and keep to their seat and out and keep the crowd moving does it surprise you that we have seen scenes of police officers in effect losing control and beating protestors well again that's the unfortunate part i'm out of time that i think you know cause our guests colleagues over there will

be only grasped what's happened and i'm sure there will be some sort of investigation what happened then the powers and authorities in ukraine will have to look at that very carefully you know don't underestimate a tool that she demands and places on people and question is and then find the you know it's going to about the psychological pressure and so on i was hearing obviously for anybody to be caught up in iraq must be terrified of what happened what about the officers what's going through their minds having to deal with this well you know about a human being at the end of the day you know they are frightened however well equipped they are well trained they are you know this is going to zour an analogy but it's sort of combat in the field war we don't do like making military analogies of policing because it's completely different from the way the military operates but actually this is very frontline face to face with some dangerous people. many of whom are actually intent on causing them harm. sometimes in those circumstances

regretfully. police officers do loath lose control and actually do things that are because they do not own a deeply regret but are criminal in nature well then i suppose what makes the difference between the police and then i'm a riot is that there's a mark of a civilized society is that it looks at those responsible for protecting the peace and then in june cross will scrutinize what they did and if they acted outside normal well they must be dealt with the most what is the police least facing the authorities i was talking about this the analysts earlier from london he was saying this isn't a revolution yet but it would be if we saw signs of the police turning against the authorities if they're under such pressure could the actual protesters push them down that route is it looking all that bad in kiev do you think well you know you sort of way you're mirer expertise there but you know let's put it let's put it from a huge point of view you know our job in policing in the united kingdom is to keep the queen's peace and in doing so to police with the consent of communities

but with politicians not with government but we have to keep public consent it's really really cool we want to stand out of our policing in the u.k. i'm not sure whether it's the same in ukraine but i'd some point these police officers will be doing if you like what they're paid to do but i'm sure they see this part of a duty and that's probably their city they probably come from it probably don't like seeing it in a state that it's in but of course they will be ancient and pressures which are way or that the place is not. very very briefly played very briefly here are the police in control of the situation or could we see the military coming to help them oh oh i don't know i think they're in control the last thing you want an immediate need is i mean the military i mean you need to keep that in. someone for a former officer from one of the metropolitan police thank you very much and they really interesting to talk to you on this thanks for your time thank you. well it's

internationally staying in the thick of events in the ukrainian capital twenty four seven for you to keep you updated on the escalating crisis there you know so keep up with what's happening at all t. dot com. interview.

choose your language. choose the consensus. choose to. choose the stories to. choose. from. they've been a year in the making and just a couple of days ago they may not happen at all but international peace talks on the syrian conflict underway and altie is bringing you special coverage from the talks near geneva. well

representatives of syria's government and opposition to finally in the same room and talking for the first time since the start of the country's three year long conflict. has been following the talks and joins us live now from the swiss town of montrose now you go to the first day of the summit is over what's come out of this much anticipated first day of the talks. well it's the first opening day of the conference and we're really expecting it to be filled with all these formal statements but instead often emotions became in the spotlight and also became clear that different participants off the talks have a different understanding of their goals for instance syrian after all these seem to be ready to talk about commenting terror since it's widely known that besides the political opposition terrorists including al qaeda linked groups are fighting there in syria as well and they seem to be ready to discuss things like a localized cease fire as well but at the same time we had u.s.

secretary of state john kerry in his opening statements saying that president assad has no future in his country which is pretty much the position of or what the opposition has been saying and they're still pressing on with these calls for him to step down we managed to speak with their official representative here at the conference let's listen to what he had to say. i think that i said is the problem. that i don't think the problem will be any solution without us are going to go. now it's also clear that all the participants of this conference do agree with the. due respect to the agreements of the asian one conference which include forming this transitional government but according to the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov the interpretations of these agreements are often different as well as. we which are leading are produced it is necessary to

a did two agreements reached to geneva one but we are winning against the one sided interpretation of those agreements many including our colleagues in europe the us as well as the opposition on tempted to interpret the geneva communiqué soley in the context of regime change but we stressed the principle of mutual consent between the government and the opposition. now iran or actually its absence is another issue here since this was supposed to take heart and it's a key power in the region with a definite influence on the situation there in syria but the opposition was strongly against that and in the end washington ended up asking the united nations to cancel its imitation even though. the u.s. and russia which have been pretty much the key organizers of this conference they've been saying that its success widely depends on the participation of everyone with any influence on the situation there and iran is definitely that sort

of power although today we've heard from both sergey lavrov and you and secretary-general ban ki moon saying that they hope will be able to join the talks some time later on along with other groups of the syrian opposition since currently it's not present here entirely but russia's chief diplomat also said that it was expected that obviously after three years of intense violence. almost three years the syrian authorities and the opposition wouldn't really get along well but this is the first step of the start of the diplomatic process and it seems everyone here agrees that the only diplomatic a political solution is fossil in syria and that's definitely going to take time and frankly even having these people the authorities and the rebels in the same building may already be considered a diplomatic breakthrough not to mention getting them to talk to each other with

the next talks scheduled for friday igor thanks very much indeed for that update not so easy going to skin off in the. syrian peace talks well that throughout the day r.t. will be bring you all the latest on the diplomatic fight for syria's future and stay with us for our special coverage. after three years of tear. gas and death toll of over one hundred thousand. homeless a and common sense come together with one mention. war is not the answer. does peace have a chance. the interim agreement with the rent is now in effect what are its prospects can't israel and its congressional allies specifically the senate kill the deal and if

for some rocky was reason all sides agree to keep to the agreement what can we expect next. after three years of. the death toll of over one hundred thousand. lomas say and common sense come together with one mention of war is not the answer. does peace have a chance. after seven years in prison mohammed jawad was finally released eric montell though kept his promise to be in kabul when the young man arrived and smothered couldn't even recognize him because he had physically changed so much because he was just a boy and he apparently had a certain shape to the back of his head from either

a fall whatever and she. was in total disbelief until she felt the shape of his head and then at that point when the collapsed on the floor. in the case of involvement of health professionals when does it rise to the level of national scandal. how many more revelations about physician involvement about research about approval of interrogations for people who are clearly injured to be injured again. how much more. the american public does not hear much about down.