your best way to the heart of moscow. dozens of people reportedly killed in ukraine's capital today government rotters break a truce with the authorities a move to storm government buildings. the crisis starts to resemble a war with themselves and taking hostages the police and authorized to use live ammunition crews been stranded in a hotel caught in the crossfire between the militants and police. fairly. make sure. it's dealing with peaceful protesters in an appropriate way. rejoices the e.u. set up an embargo targeting ukrainian police banning the sale of any law enforcement gear and equipment to kiev that has opposition leaders admit that they have no control over the radicals in the streets.

this is all to international with the twenty four hours a day life from a studio in moscow which is ten ten pm and eight pm in kiev from where breaking news comes from rioters in the capital are trying to force their way towards the president's administration and explosions are being heard in the city center meanwhile officials are demanding the militants hand in their weapons and return to protesting peacefully welty has a team of reporters and cameramen in the city. the frontline of the fighting has now moved further away from our hotel which is in the very center of the city right next to independence square. aiming to control the government of buildings here in kiev they have this hotel under full control and there's a makeshift hospital downstairs where the injured are being treated by medics and

we also know that ukrainian authorities have given the green light for police to use. rounds in order to protect themselves from the riders who also allegedly are now heavily armed with different types of weapons and while a similar situation is happening in other parts of the country where writers are storming various types of government buildings for more about what was happening here in specialty of just a few hours ago when the intense fighting between the writers and the police took place. downstairs and managed to film basically the start of today's violence this does not look like a truce at all last night the opposition to president managed to agree on a cease fire but in the morning the rightwing sect the core of the protest the hardcore radicals decided to go on the offensive from the independence square which

generally looks like a battle zone right now almost seventy two hours of fighting burning everything in its path no right now we saw that the police have been pushed away from this barricade they have been occupying for the last forty eight hours last night i took a walk here it was all covered with the police now you can see for yourself the right wing's are again reinforcing their barricades we literally had to dodge bullets during several of our attempted live broadcasts because it was very very unsafe here right now the police are pushed back we can still hear flash bangs exploded we can still see molotov cocktails being thrown the situation is very very tense we do know that the government or you or your great has. implemented the so-called counterterrorism operation mode which would mean tougher security across the country but right now this is pure mayhem it is unclear where it's going to go the right wing sector the core of the protests their leaders said last night that they knew nothing about the truth that they would not listen to anyone not the

opposition not the politicians on the government they said that the revolution must continue until the very end we also saw already saw several wounded being carried from this this stand off point here at the barricade at the institute's street. what i saw i think it was a gunshot wound the man was bleeding heavily but it's really unclear whether this was caused by by a live round or anything else maybe it was a flash bang or anything of the kind so the situation remains still very tense and it's definitely far from being a truce well health officials now say more than sixty have been killed since the start of the week however opposition activists claim many more than that have died within their ranks today alone witnesses say bodies of strewn around the area the bloodshed erupted when roth has broken a shaky truce with the government which had been established before well a video agency ruptly sent this footage of two police officers trying to help an

injured colleague here you can see them being caught in an explosion of some sort more than ten policeman have been killed since the clashes broke out a couple of days ago. and several hundred officers have now been injured. also a score of policemen have been taken captive by the rot as they're seen being lined up and taken to the militants camp and some of them wounded we obtained footage said to show one leading an ambulance but the rajah's apparently refusing when they realize he's a special forces officer. when the let's get more now from roger gray he's a former senior officer in the u.k.'s metropolitan police force who specialize in the use of deployment of firearms and he's there in london roger authorizing the use of live rounds under these circumstances now do you think the ukrainian police are justified in doing this well think what we're seeing is

a situation that's moved from from protests and conflict into really of was termed earlier commentator into the revolution so i think it's gone beyond you know if the police were on to this situation now then i think we would be coming militarized any why so we are not talking about the usual policing of protests but we're talking of something are much higher level so i think it's probably unavoidable it's gone beyond that point on both sides so if that ever happened in london that live rounds were fired on riot police how would the authorities react there. well we have no precedent for the over here we've never seen anything like this occur but i cannot refute your situation where. the police in this country the police in london would open for on a crowd you would have to have a single and defined target that was an immediate threat to provoke an all response

police in this country but then again we have not had to have we'll have to do with drawings from revolution of the level that's going on here for quite difficult to draw parallels between what we're seeing here and what would go on with such a scenario in london sure it is very clear we're getting evidence that writers are indeed using light farms against police officers thirteen now i understand have been killed several hundred injured and yet western governments are still criticizing authorities in ukraine for excessive force is that fair. i think you really have to know the minutiae of this to do so i do you know who was the worst protagonist in all of this what i would say is that every situation we generally find that there is a small minority who are prepared to go beyond a certain point to provoke the situation to one that would suit their purpose in other words they will incite this convoy of us it was always a fragile truce and the fact that gun forrest taken twice on one side or the other

it is not a great surprise to me now very sadly the currency of revolution is always human life and that is what we are seeing here i think that no government is going to be eyeball to resist the deployment of forearms to a very large extent they are being confronted with them and alluding to what you said earlier or can never imagine that happening over here and bearing in mind now that we're seeing as we're talking about now the extremist elements amongst the protesters advancing on government buildings even taken government buildings over in the past and yet we're still seeing the u.s. for example saying that you know covert should withdraw all security forces from the city center and allow peaceful protests if they did that now how vulnerable would that government become. i think what it amounts to in their eyes would be. this is because i struggle between greater forces and minorities are on the street

there are great political issues here there are wider implications concerning the democracy of. the whole country and his mood is a completely different area for them what we don't talk about now is out and out revolution and i think more than two or three steps or even more than one step back to the government leave you know before that leaves him in danger of losing power and that's the whole of the system the price the are being realistic the american public about this is understandable in view of the terms of a difficult political project great former senior officer from the metropolitan police force in london thank you very much for your thoughts great to talk to you thank you well you can see for yourself how the crisis has changed the very landscape of the capital the once picturesque independent square and flourish in kiev as contrasted with what has become a wasteland cluttered with and rubble as people pick their way between the raging

fires and all that the tune of gunshots screaming in clashes as writers battled with security forces would do had to r.t. dot com for more pictures more coverage and timeline on these events their reports and footage from the scene suggest they now have access the rotters to pistols assault rifles and grenades as we've just been talking about and the authorities are looking for ways to prevent the opposition from becoming a fully armed force but the rogers and police aren't the only ones in danger of being hit by bullets. is part of the r.t. crew that got caught up in the crossfire earlier today. few hours today we really couldn't even exit the building because firing was going on all around this area and. basically bullets were flying in from the windows. we found this bullet in rooms one of our rooms basically inside this hotel. windows could be seen pretty much. all the floors one of our cameramen was trying to film

what was happening outside and a bullet hit just below the camera ricocheting off the wall thankfully he didn't he wasn't hit and wasn't injured but shots were fired he just dropped to the ground. a live report just right here in the same exact room after they were finished another just flew. into the window cracking it and the cameraman of the news agency. in. the wall. thankfully who was uninjured and everyone is ok now we're just waiting to see basically going to happen next how it's going to develop. all of that international . fighting here.

the opposition and even the authorities say that they're ready to negotiate with the thing is the leadership of the right wing radicals who have been active off of this center of the fighting they have been saying that they haven't been taking part in any negotiation and they're going to take this. basically they're ready to take it to be and they say until. the crane step down. riots have been continuing. trying to gain control.

yes afula when i close my eyes i see people. you know sometimes i think that itself is a face covered by. the people in both sides of the barricades with you. sometimes it feels as if all of ukraine is no.

use diplomats in brussels have agreed on sanctions for ukraine in a bid to put an end to the ongoing mayhem that the measures include travel visa restrictions for selected politicians and an. auntie's tesser city has more on the reaction from europe the ministers are in the middle of discussing whether or not to impose sanctions on ukraine everybody is here now is safe for just three foreign ministers of germany france of poland who are in kiev and they will be giving feedback to the ministers who were here in brussels and in order to decide how to move forward. now there are some initial reports of some sort of a compromise has been reached with the summer suggested that it could possibly

involve. stopping down at the end of the year although if you remember a previously it said that he is open to holding a snap election if this is the only diplomatic and democratic way of resolving the ongoing conflict in the country now was far as comments here are concerned by the general consensus is that the government you could in government has to take the lead however there are a few of the ministers and diplomats who are saying that they like the dutch foreign minister who is saying that they could possibly consider imposing sanctions as well on some of the protesters there are also reactions coming from the russian side where sanctions are concerned russian foreign minister sergey lavrov had said that this move because up until now the e.u. has not made such a move that this move today is a form of bullying he said that this he likened the sanctions to some form of blackmail and he also said that the trade in government has already delivered some of the concessions let's listen to what he had to say on this matter the ukrainian

government has repeatedly shown its goodwill they offered compromises in deals like when they greet to free those detained during the riots if the protest is vacated the administrative buildings that captured the government filled it so big asians while the opposition eventually disrupted the process has been largely condemnation here from all the foreign ministers on the ongoing violence on the ground but we also did hear from the british foreign minister william hague who said that it is not right to call the protesters terrorists that they are simply people who are looking for a better life but he also said that all sides must turn away from the violence a lever did put responsibility squarely on the ukrainian government to take the lead on this some of the responsibility for the escalation of the crisis should be shouldered by the ukrainian president well that's the opinion of the head of a major russian foreign affairs think tank. truce is not what they're looking for they are looking for the national revolution as the leader of the extreme.

right wing right sector says they they have been dreaming about this moment for a long time they have been giving forces and actually. allies also on president from uganda which should he couldn't not know about this danger grown in ukraine and still until now he hasn't been using it can stick you should know all means to preserve the constitutional order and. the president of the country has been cuti sooty the citizen to preserve the constitutional order until now president you know polish has been evading giving all this to what we can force me has not given them or all the necessary means to protect themselves and to protect victories for. citizens of ukraine so part of the responsibility is on him as well the white house to suggest to the ukrainian government should remove its

security forces from the center of kiev in a bid to hold the bloodshed it comes after washington banned twenty senior ukrainian officials from traveling to america but it's always going to turn reports the u.s. may only be seeing one side of the story here. president obama knows what the ukrainian leaders should do we hold the bringing together by merilee responsible for making sure. it's dealing with a fuse for protesters in an appropriate way. president obama has however made no suggestions on how ukrainian authorities should deal with rioters torching the city shooting beating and sowing molotov cocktails at police. neither has he called to the so-called peaceful protesters to wait for elections to express their aspirations as he would at home find a different circumstances you don't like a particular policy or a particular president then argue for your position go out there and win an

election. european leaders don't seem to want to wait for elections either all but calling for the ukrainian president to step down. the ukrainian authorities are by to lose all legitimacy the kind of forages in ukraine need to make space for a transitional government of national unity and early elections in order to bring back the legitimacy of national authorities was washington and brussels are considering sanctions against ukraine the u.s. has already barred a number of the korean officials from entering the country shouldn't there be sanctions against the opposition because they're the ones who are obviously defying democracy by torching the capital as opposed to accepting the results of a legitimate election and working to challenge the next next time around washington may stand up for democracy in the words that it is the people themselves that make those decisions and that's what the united states will continue to strive. to

achieve. but behind the scenes u.s. officials are apparently trying to decide who should be in the ukrainian government and who should not so i don't think leetch should go into the government i don't think it's necessary i don't think it's a good idea in terms of they're not going into the government just let him sort of stay out in doofus political homework and stuff. it makes me wonder if paul martin the police with molotov cocktails and shooting at them is also part of the opposition's quote unquote homework in the name of democracy get a second party. or marcus papadopoulos who's a commentator on russia and the balkans thinks that the e.u. is violating international law by threatening ukraine with sanctions. what rights does the government have to impose sanctions on another country to impose sanctions on a government that happens to believe that its economic pathway lies with russia as opposed to the european union who gives them that fight that's not in accordance

with the internet with international law it's not in in accordance with the mechanisms of the united nations the only way that further bloodshed and civil war could be can be averted in ukraine is for washington and brussels to firstly categorically in unequivocal condemn the violent protests what with what we're seeing in kiev to violently condemn the militants what they've been doing in the last forty eight hours are killin injuring and capturing police officers and event the next step of washington and brussels would be to leave ukraine an independent sovereign country to deal with its own affairs well we'll be following the ongoing turmoil in ukraine and bring you the latest from kiev as soon as we get it here on r.t. international. three

years ago france banned the fracking saying the environmental risks were simply too high but the french gas and total and energy giant to tell is getting down to business in the u.k. apparently brushing off the concerns of locals there. put those worries to the head of the company's gas and power division. think it's fair to say the public in the u.k. who are concerned about shared gas exploration and fracking. that france has banned this and government pushing ahead what is clear even to different countries of different different views. we. we've. been living in you q well also tracking your. good we have been speaking about the quakes and. of course. says beekeepers but. when people you do it like you can treat thing the problem for

a lot of people who live in the communities where fracking could take place if the plans are already sort of going forward so the decisions being made essentially whether they like it or not all of what has been the city has to do exploration but we really need to have the proper permits you know to start production is the exploration success. we are far from really should you should know where we are going to put dismissiveness in the coming six months last we heard in that interview there are no guarantees when it comes to shell gas despite the u.k. government pushing ahead with exploration plans far from being questions gold and gas when it comes to shell gas exploration the consequences long term remain extremely unclear from international petroleum week and sarah first before sing for us. it was a bitter pill to swallow for many russians to watch the so-called red machine stall and lose in the men's hockey to finland but there's hope yet for the home audience

the ladies certainly figure skating is on the way and. on russia's chances the. vote so what are the chances of a podium spot then for the. yes where there are high hopes for a medal if not two in the women's individual figure skating which is just concluding in the ice skating palace now there was a lot of pressure on the young shoulders of you guys she of course put in a full list display in the team event to help russia win gold and after that performance a lot of people were tipping her for gold in the women's individual but now she has just concluded free program there was another stumble she stumbled in the short program yesterday and stumbled and fell to the ice again this evening however it hasn't stopped her shooting to the top of the overall standings she is very much in with a shout of a medal however there are still five skaters to go so it might be tough for her to hold on to

a place in the top three it was actually another russian adelina sotnikova who was in second place going into tonight's final round she's yet to take to the ice so russia do have hopes that maybe they should could secure two medals out of the three in the women's individual figure skating which should be concluding in the next twenty minutes or so there has been a comparatively quiet day in and around sochi see how the latest developments have affected the medals table and you can see that it is norway who currently lead the overall standings at the moment they have ten dollars to their name their closely followed by the by germany and the usa who have eight and seven gold respectively while russia are in full. thank you very much indeed more for me than in the next poll thanks a lot in sochi. well as i said we'll have a full update from the olympic games as yet another day of medal hopes begins to draw to a close all that still to come over the next few hours or so. the

g twenty four team promises. exhilarating winter. is here in germany and it's now a make over now and the rest of our lives take justina for sochi twenty four take. on. more news on the latest from ukraine in just over half an hour from now in the meantime it's our documentary mollusks of the revolution about that violent unrest in ukraine. recently swiss voters nearly passed a referendum to put a strict quota of back on immigration switzerland is a relatively small country and some estimate that almost a quarter of the population is made up of immigrants from e.u. countries that is a lot of people and the swiss are worried that the increased foreigners will also

mean increased crime rent prices burd the state and erode traditional local culture as modern immigration almost always does this is populations democratic choice to restrict immigration is naturally being blasted by the e.u. brass what threats to cancel bilateral agreements how dear you have a different version of democracy than we in the have switzerland how dare you i don't think this event will have much effect on the e.u. bureaucratic machine nothing could make them change their hyper liberal minds but i think the swiss anti immigration referendum will have a huge effect on local populations of countries like germany and the u.k. which are seeing horrible effects of open borders and growing anti e.u. sentiment as i speak i don't like to make predictions by i think a lot of disenfranchised people across the e.u. are going to become quite jealous of the swiss move and demand the same type of changes at home but that's just my opinion.

piano's depression. these properties will soon change to improve your life. are you that's.

one of those that's. branding. when i close my eyes i see people. to the. best of all of a combatant and they're all wearing masks. sometimes i think. there's a face covered by. both sides of the barricades and sometimes you see that feels as if all of ukraine is now masked.

my life i have two children and a wife who i love very much yet interesting i want to say it because it's real history taking shape right before my eyes what's happening now will remain in history forever but i will tell that it's a black or white page in history. i was done in two thousand and four i remember the environment. people treated each other with. i was looking for the same. people on here are my down hoping to meet the same attitude the same wall. when you put. it for some reason it turns out that people are getting ready to fight. for them what can you achieve on my done if opposition leaders aren't popular. and there's no real alternative to going to go bitch. it's good that people have shown the next governor.