ukraine's president signs on for closer ties with the e.u. but it was his previous sessions failure to join the club which ignited the deadly ferry revolution on the ongoing armed conflict in ukraine the find. just hours before it's set to expire ukraine's president extends a cease fire in the east for another three days but it's a true stance already seen at least two civilians and more than twenty national guard fighters killed nearly this fighting. series in battle rebels are now in line for a five hundred million dollar military aid package from the u.s. but there are fears the weapons could end up on the wrong side of the park aids. also coming up this hour in the latest setback to black berlin's already in the

tourist new airport it's revealed a fake engineer was hired to design the fire safety system causing the opening to be delayed yet again. wherever you're watching from in the world welcome to moscow and to our to international i mean o'neill our top story ukraine's president has a trade agreement with the e.u. the feel you're to sign the deal is what triggered the toppling of his predecessor while the terms of the agreement ultimately led to the ongoing bloody standoff in the country's east however petro poroshenko says he's carrying out the will of the nation. the people demanding european future very clear every single region of ukraine. support one candidate demonstrating we have

a different form we have three to four europe we have a different piece well a financially challenged europe still doesn't appear to be quite ready for ukraine the blocks energy commissioner has warned the bailout for greece is quote peanuts compared to the police brussels would have to cough up to save eeling economy but the president of the european commission he sees the e.u. is not ready to integrate a country like ukraine at this stage that sentiment is also echoed by the foreign minister of europe's powerhouse germany which comes as no surprise to financial expert patrick young ukraine which last year was in a catastrophic position how it's signed a free trade association this year is going to associate with the european union the point when it's on the brink already of economic disaster this is a how does strong move for the ukrainian economy the only winners i do this are a few sadly deluded egos whether they are in brussels whether they are in

washington who believe some horror rather they've achieved a great deal of political victory for the people of ukraine there are no jobs to be hired here there's only going to be job losses there is no economic growth to be harmed by suddenly having western european goods. little cost on to your marketplace this is a disaster it's a very very tragic day for the people of ukraine who want to improve their economic outlook. as we mentioned a little earlier the ukrainian president has reportedly prolonged the shaky cease fire in the east until monday but i am abundance the political commentator from reporter my good seeing believes the ukrainian leader still has little interest in bringing lasting peace and stability to the eastern regions shows already a lot of neglect towards the situation in the east south of here great so far he doesn't pay attention he doesn't invest in the south and that is the result because the ideas he was chosen as far as that sort of general can do that all the west all

the european union and the united states and he fulfilled his promise and he signs the greenman and basically he doesn't care what happens afterwards because as we know during elections he invested his own seven million fortune to become a president so you can't expect him as a genuine caring about his people he's definitely not he's a career businessmen who cares about his own good. government forces in eastern ukraine are seeing more than twenty national guard fighters have been killed near the city of slovyansk during an overnight bottle well among coaster of joins me now live from donetsk near slavyansk what is occurring what do we know no room on. well but then all the violence occurred overnight stay near one of the checkpoints at one of the checkpoints near the city all. which was on the control of the ukrainian army according to anti-government forces at least twenty fighters all

thing national guard units had been killed we also learned that the anti-government forces destroyed two armored personnel carriers belonging to the national guard now the national guard itself is a mercenary mercenary combat unit which was created specifically to aid the ukrainian army and it's a military operation here in the east off the country in a while like kiev authorities have not confirmed this latest a death toll however did say that its army had already left the checkpoints out there in a separate incident incident a woman and her twenty six year old son had been they killed when a missile hit or is then shola building in the city all fussed fled valance and just to remind you all week long truce which was supposed to end on friday

nights was extended by the bush and called by another seventy two hours meanwhile the truce itself the cease fire was very shaky and both sides of the conflict war accusing each other of violate and several times i mean while the president of ukraine delegate a schenkel said that the end to government forces had broken the ceasefire at least fifty times over the last week or month last of live from donetsk in eastern ukraine first thank you for the update. the shaky truce has been broken several times residents of the defined city of trauma tour say their city was shelled continuously throughout the week there was ongoing artillery fire in the village of semyonov which was almost razed to the ground in the city of slavyansk also came under artillery fire numerous times during the week they village of prove all nigher saw one of the worst spikes of violence with one woman reportedly killed

there. more than one hundred thousand people across you very important to russia seeking refuge once according to the u.n. refugee department people say they're fleeing their homes in fear of the continued shelling by government forces. now the timeline of ukraine's ongoing crisis and more expert analysis is always available for you online at r.t. dot com. moving on now the syrian rebels are losing the war against president assad's forces but their look could soon turn thanks to washington president obama wants congress to decide half a billion dollars to train and equip syria's moderate opposition but there are fears the move will flood the region with weapons that could fall into the wrong hands as marina porton i explained. the obama administration is requesting for lawmakers to approve five hundred million dollars in spending for the purpose of arming the syrian opposition the white house claims that only appropriate vetted

elements of the moderate opposition would receive direct training from the u.s. military and be equipped with american weapons and ammunition u.s. officials insist that the weapons would serve to help empower the syrian people and help them push back against the government as well as the militant extremist group isis which actually has been fighting to topple bashar assad since the civil war began more than three years ago however as recent events have shown american weapons may very well end up in its enemies hands just two weeks ago isis an all out assault on iraq's second largest city mosul causing a reported thirty thousand iraqi soldiers who were trained by the u.s. military to turn around and run as a result sunni extremists have seized stockpiles of american weapons and ammunition as well as u.s. humvees the bloodshed being unleashed in iraq by isis has arguably been strengthened by the fact that militants are fighting with u.s.

weapons in afghanistan the taliban is now armed with u.s. made stinger missiles which according to reports were originally sent to libya when the obama administration was arming the opposition rising up against former leader moammar gadhafi for more than a decade the u.s. has been drowning the arab world in weapons arming locals to help them overthrow governments not only how is it created absolute chaos and bloodshed it is arguably how to strengthen terrorist organizations because the weapons at least some of them are ending up in the hands of the enemy as for syria the devastating civil war killed some one hundred fifty thousand people and the international community does agree that something should be done question is is sending weapons to one side of the conflict which includes terrorists the best solution reporting from washington d.c. marina. r t. the bipartisan tug of war in washington has seen the white house change its mind several times over intervention in syria direct non lethal aid to the

rebels was given the green light more than a year ago but in december supplies were suspended after a lion share of the u.s. equipment was seized by this however earlier this month washington admitted it's been virtually sending legal aid to the opposition war campaigner brian becker sees america's middle east policy as well inconsistent it shows the united states appears to have a schizophrenia foreign policy there they're saying they demand unity in iraq behind the central government which is fighting what they call islamic extremists from i still work and at the same time they're funding these same armed groups in syria to take down an independent nationalist and sovereign government in syria what the u.s. is doing and has been doing this finally in money guns and more occupation tools in a region that it considers to be vital because it's resource rich that's about it. meanwhile the un is pleading for action over what's being called the in human

suffering of the syrian people the world bodies chief says almost eleven million syrians need humanitarian help that's half of the country's population but some are now at least being able to return to their homes as maria financial reports. police road in central syria used to be beset by snipers and anyone driving here could be kidnapped that's when the smallest western area known as the moon was controlled by on drug bills the title of your brother next to the syrian lebanese border is just eighty kilometers from the capital damascus but it is like a state within a state that has its own security forces police and even the army you can see is symbols of new authorities here everywhere graffiti or three stars that means free syrian army is controlling this area the syrian military cannot enter six months later return to the main square if. you feed the

syrian army spectrum after months of fierce battles and numerous offensives officers say i can take off my flak jacket my dear for if. it's friday it's a day and the officers tell us that all the shops are closed the restaurants a closed eye roll out see lots of people in the streets but there is another reason actually many residents fled this town and entire area of cologne. to escape from atrocities. at the city's mosque the heart of this predominantly muslim town friday prayers have just finished. most of these people when they return to their town recently for the hot outside. my home was hit and destroyed saying god the army is now back and give you food is also home to a big christian community a different face he used to live in harmony. for years until islamic rule was imposed by the rebels many being religious zealots some link to

a kind of free syrian mostly really. they were religious groups jihadi islamists but in fact it was normally as you know and anything else their religion was money and oh look for this young man shows us what used to be a jewelry shop it was looted and then set on fire. although with luck made or bouyeri they were on motorbikes they called themselves the free syrian army they used to also take food coming to town from damascus often they were also kidnapping people locals hope the dog days a gun just a week after we left the town colleges attack the army positions in the region again several other areas across the main house by rebels a jihadist it seems that despite the army's recent success it's still too early to say when this devastating war will be over. or if notional tea from

syria still to come for you this hour the world turns a blind eye to thaw eason's of african refugees held captive in egypt's sinai peninsula. but you. must also deal that in. the budget of the children as much as. we report shortly i want is really activist who is trying to drum up support for her campaign by putting the terror of human trafficking on torture on the silver screen that's coming up after a very short break. as ukraine struggles with a ceasefire the regime in kiev says it is committed to an association agreement with the e.u. the impact of which could be truly painful for the ukrainian people dividing ukraine continues to. choose your language. ok we can we know if you're going to stay still some of the. troops could use the

consensus here to. choose the opinions that you figure a cool. choose to stories could impact the. true spirit access to. these. economic ups and downs in the final months day. sang i and the rest because i meet a cute little being a briefly on a. welcome back to the program maintaining

a royal family doesn't usually come cheap with palaces a la porte world tours and high level security arrangements it's not surprising the price tag is a high one but do commoners really know what they're paying for. takes a look at whether britons are getting good value for money or not. over eighty percent of brits believe the royal family brings in a significant amount of revenue for the country each year some five hundred million pounds according to the case national tourism agency but those have been campaigning for the abolition of the monarchy believe that figure is incorrect and they're ready to show british taxpayers just how much of their money really goes towards funding liver oil is there a public group claims the estimated annual cost of the monarchy is almost three hundred million pounds which is around nine times the official figure published by the royal household why this disparity apparently the official figure excludes a number of costs including security royal visits and lost revenue from the dutch

cheese of lang castor and cornwall if the republic's figures are to be believed it would mean the british head of state is one of the most expensive government institutions in the world the important point is that they want to close a lot more than many people think. but even if those figures were made public there's every chance that the majority of the british public would agree that they want to it was still worth while in fact a poll last year found out forty five percent of the british public shelters strong support for the monarchy up from twenty seven percent in two thousand and six a survey released this month showed that prince william his grandmother and his father are all more popular than the country's top rates of politicians remember the crowds falwell's wedding but more people are now saying not having the option to choose who benefits from taxpayers' money is also important so there's also a principle of democracy about whether it's right that the head of state should be . ready to treat position rather chosen by the people and it's also

a question of the message it sends to the young people growing up in this country i would rather that the young people growing up in this country were told that no matter who you are no matter where you're born not who your parents are you can rise to the highest office in the land and that would be the case is going to have a retrieval even though. the spirits love their queen there's a growing number of those who would like to see their money go towards improving the country rather than the country's palaces marina costs of a reporter from london forty over eighteen million pines goes on keeping the royals fed and dressed to impress the sequel to two thousand pension more than thirteen million pounds is spent on the upkeep of royal residences that could provide four hundred forty students with scholarships and the money spent on the family's travel could feed more than three million homeless people republican graeme smith believes the royals are simply an insult to people suffering from austerity whether the spending by the world family is going up even by their own official figures it's

going up you know they spend four million pounds on. renovating a house for prince william. no the public does not owe these people a living it doesn't owe them a house and they need to start cutting by tens of millions not increasing their income and their wealth whilst we are cutting public services and public jobs government simply hands over millions of pounds to the world in the world then get to choose how they spend it and then report on how they've spent to themselves countering it in a lot of spin. and misinformation of course if you look to other countries in europe they have similar heads of state fraction of the price so the republic of ireland for example they get to choose their head of state does a similar job and they cost less than ten million pounds every year so clearly you know having a head of state for three hundred million pounds it's a bit of

a nonsense. for thousands of israel refugees from africa the search for a better life ends up in tortured towns they fall into the hands of rootless smuggling gangs and then simply vanish in egypt's sinai desert more than three thousand migrants per month come from the east african state of alone many of them are kidnapped for ransom and tortured until their families pay if they don't him and traffickers reportedly execute the hostages more than four thousand people are estimated to have been killed since two thousand and eight on the run to thaw and are thought to be in captivity right now well last month the president of eritrea demanded an investigation but the international community has remained largely silent with israel in particular ignoring the problem on its own doorstep its prime minister wants even describe the refugees as infiltrators esther pharmacy is a swedish eritrean activist who tried to raise awareness about the victims of torture by putting their plight on the big screen. so listen to.

the american plastic bags dropping it in their bags this is. iran it's the finest spoke to and he said now in our program in the she believes there's a big difference in the way captives are treated. i have seen kids children that are two years old being tortured there were kids that have to watch their mother being burned alive and they survived this are the kind of people that i talk to the torture is it's not any other tortured like we see horror movie or something it's where people are tortured twenty four hours a day deprived deprived of food deprived how is there not more international

weirdness about what's happening in finite the amount of gaffes the type of torture and the millions of dollars that have been made by these hostage takers will. also have to do is race you know we we have seen americans getting kidnapped in the sinai. it took only twenty four hours to release them last year norwegian woman was kidnapped in the same area and it took about a week for her to be released. we've seen last year also israeli man being kidnapped and also took a few days for him to be released so this happens all quite often to westerners as well but they're out with the base and they don't get to experience the torture as a free country. it has to do with race. and glance at some other news from around the world some fifteen thousand people have protested over what they say was mosque or war during afghanistan's presidential election progs gathered outside the presidential palace in kabul voicing support for one of the candidates. he dropped

out of the race after the vote rigging allegations during this month's runoff final results are due next month amid a taliban insurgency that's still raging and nato forces pulling out. a gas pipeline blast in southern india has killed at least fourteen people on the left two dozen injured the flames rose high up into the sky golfing buildings and forcing people to flee to safety the pipeline belongs to india's largest state owned gas company authorities have ordered a probe into what caused the explosion. long queues stretched outside the capital of iraq's oil rich kurdish region that's because the ongoing security crisis in the country has led to severe fuel shortages in several cities the largest oil refinery was shut down last week amid severe clashes with isis militants have already taken control of huge areas across iraq the army is now in control of the site but pressure on supply is growing. clashes between

police and protesters over the eviction of refugees continue in berlin hundreds of people form blockades to prevent people being for start off their squats only forty asylum seekers remain there has been occupied for more than eighteen months. the construction of one of the largest airports in germany is turning into a fiasco corruption claims per planning on a budget that's gone through the roof meant berlin's new terminal is now four years behind schedule artie's peter all over reports on the latest scandal to draw on the facility. at this time of thea an airport should be bustling with holiday makers jetting off for their summer vacations not see it though at berlin brandenburg the airport's two years behind schedule and the only people the construction work is still working on the project with costs spiraling out of control it's really become a comedy of errors the latest scandal involves the fire safety system moreover the

man that designed it it's a merge that he didn't have any qualifications to be in a position to do so what he did have though was a business card that said that he was an engineer turns out that wasn't worth the paper that it was written on but how does a man with no qualifications find himself in a very important position on a multibillion euro project to find out more on this i'm joined by steve from the party of reason safe if i a business card that said i was an astronaut would that mean i got to go into space quite likely for was the space agency was run by the same people that are running this airport wouldn't surprise me at all but what's going on here what's happening with this project right now cost overruns without end technical disasters political decisions being made and in my opinion it's probably due to the fact that government agencies bureaucrats are trying to make a huge project which should have been better left off to a private consortium to build as it was initially. intended to be i mean we don't

even know when this airports could open next year no sixteen seventeen maybe eighteen maybe never you know thank you very much there we go we don't know when it's going to open some estimates of put a final cost of around ten billion euro on finally getting this airport it berlin brandenburg open it certainly hasn't gone smoothly here. up next what does ukraine stand to gain from the association agreement with the un will it divide the country even further thoughts is this quest on cross-talk here in just a few moments not. the federal migration service of russia has recently received more than five thousand

requests for political asylum from ukrainian citizens these requests come from refugees who are fleeing the conflict in the eastern part of ukraine in fact i personally know people who are from the ukraine who are now essentially trapped in russia because their native regions are at war with the kiev government there is a classic mainstream media talking point about russian aggression and russian imperialism which gets repeated constantly in fact so often that is not even a question but if you stop to think about it if you were trapped in a region at war and you were going to escape where would you go into the heart of the aggressors imperialists no you go in the direct opposite direction interestingly enough in both this conflict and the two thousand and eight war in georgia the overwhelming majority of refugees flee towards russia excluding some sort of bizarre stockholm syndrome it seems that for people in break we're republics and ukraine and georgia russia is a safe haven they often say that people vote with their feet and in the case of the most recent wars in european history it is clear whose feet are voting for whom and

no mainstream media talking points can deny that but that's just my opinion.

we speak your language. news programs and documentaries in spanish matters to you. a little tonnage of angola's stories. here. the spanish find out more visit. please. hello and welcome to crossfire where all things considered i'm peter lavelle as ukraine struggles with a ceasefire the regime in kiev says it is committed to an association agreement with the e.u. the impact of which could be truly painful for the ukrainian people dividing you.