which doesn't sound anything to mission to teach religion and why you should care about humans and. this is why you should care only. a humanitarian disaster is declared in the eastern ukrainian city school locals are running out of electricity water and food after weeks of siege by king of troops israel's pulling its troops from gaza. as both sides agree three day cease fire will look at the devastation wrought so far by the month long mission that's killed nearly nineteen hundred. plus the us is under fire over using aid programs in cuba as a cover for political ends and after an investigation reveals young let in americans were recruited to ferment unrest across the island.

it is six pm in the russian capital and watching our team international we were in a josh. is said to be in the grip of a humanitarian disaster local leaders assessment of conditions in the eastern ukrainian regional capital come after weeks of being besieged in the city which has long been a focal point for and resistance almost half of the population has fled bought two hundred fifty thousand remain and are now trapped the ongoing fighting has left will gas without electricity is now hindering repair works water supplies have also been cut off as have mobile and internet communications removing waste from the city has also become impossible creating a serious health hazard and there is a shortage of a medical supplies and food are just where if an option is in the besieged city. lugansk is a shadow of its former self it was once

a flourishing regional center with a population of half a million today it is largely abandoned and dangerous destroyed schools and hospitals silent reminders of and go in conflict and this is the hotel in the center of lugansk where we used to stay just two weeks ago there were gas here mostly journalists but also ukrainians running from violence in the towns of cum i thought against libya as they used to be two major percenters of the large scale military operation here in eastern ukraine there was also a chinese restaurant on the seventh floor but now as you can see the dow has been shut down the sign says. tahoe is quote the further we go from the center the greater the destruction all of his house was damaged when a shallow exploded in her garden and sort of the flowers she planted there is now a deep crater. is there i should buy you break

a deal is i who are them i suggested a day or. two would you. like other locos here who haven't already fled the fighting on good has taken shelter in the basement here for your part you found that you would be a fool to sign my junior bach or be an actual back to dickey i grew to love you pretty good shall i get you back many of those sheltering underground osieck. and desperate attack you know where the idea is that you know up here sure you're not sure if there are a group we really are not here. as we are speaking merely to city drops out like cows are a constant problem here the lines were apparently repaired just before we arrived not done is really the way to look at it but i really don't know. if it and here in the really there is no data to really build out with very very big needs is the reason shelter under almost every apartment building in lugansk

and there really empty this is a not a basement that the has recently become home to local residents and it's not that they hide here at the time of intense shelling and remodeling you can see literally leave here every family has its own place here like an apartment building but underground in one of the corridor or a school meter the youngest resident i've seen here so far he has many of the fears of the older people here. paul says here there's really not just a couple of going on. in their children's school. at nine pm every day people in different basements recites the same prayer they ask for god to protect them and bring them peace but as the shelling continues around them the furtherest a day to plan a had is tomorrow when they say they will meet here again brief notion r.t.

lugansk ukraine. now the grain army is also closing in on other and a cave stronghold in the east it's now says preparing for a major offensive and this will target the regional capital than the ask which is now the main hub of resistance the city has a population of almost a million and these new pictures allegedly show tanks and armored vehicles on the outskirts of the. started deploying hardware the air on monday in the suburbs of the besieged city after it when we come under heavy fire in the past weeks and this is what one of the local schools looked like after it was pounded by shells that ask is an important city both in the region and in the country and here are some of the key facts. the mask is ukraine's fifth largest city with a population of one hundred fifty thousand last year forms name it the most

attractive city for doing business in the whole country it's one of the cranes main economic hubs and the center of the nation's a mining industry and just two years ago did they ask drew thousands of football fans from all across europe when i was one of the host cities for your twenty twelve well things are very different now the months of heavy shelling have forced residents to live practically on the ground. you said you know they do you know look they're going to give you kind of a very visual review of the reasons you were. now we're getting reports of renewed fighting in the outskirts of the man square ukrainian troops trying to force out local militia we managed to speak to journalist christiane nonparty who's in the area and he told us kiev is sending

multiple rocket launchers to surround the city. you know how far that might incur. if you're going to. political or financial it's not the. way. you go we were here we heard of our shoes and so you saw some smoke. but we gave them hands to go. around two hundred fifty ukrainian soldiers are now housed in a tent camp in russia after laying down their arms and crossing the border they are from a group of over four hundred who appealed for sanctuary on monday the others were sent back to ukraine after he said they wanted to return home monday's mass defection was the largest of its kind they're not the first groups that have been inserted gold had run out of ammunition and felt abandoned by key of ukraine's army has now found it easy at waging its operation in the east launched back in april.

military analysts say it needs over eleven billion dollars to replace all weapons and machinery while the amount of money recently allocated to the army was only around eight hundred million ukraine soldiers are suffering from food shortages are having to rely on charity and there's a website set up by civil activists calling on people to donate food to the army and gave also appears to be struggling to pay its soldiers just recently the country's parliament introduced a military tax here's what ukraine soldiers who crossed into russia told r.t. . fortune city don't forget we have witnessed so many deaths and other terrible things all of us are be very happy to be here with given new clothes and manage to rest and we're very grateful for that which. we were encircled we had no way out so to keep the manpower safe our commanders decided to escape to

russia i think for no clear reason the ukrainian population is destroying itself because on both sides they are the same people are not. moscow is weighing its response to the sanctions recently imposed by the west later this hour we're looking at one option reportedly on the table which could see european airlines lose up to a billion dollars in three months. israel is pulling its troops out of gaza a three day ceasefire brokered by egypt is now officially in place israel says it has completed its month long mission which was to target hamas but which brought the worst devastation and civilian losses in years nearly nine hundred palestinians were killed in israel's onslaught around four and thirty of them were children the mission also damaged over one hundred sixty schools and destroyed twenty four hospitals which have been overflowing with injured and dying palestinians. well

earlier i spoke to lot of stein from israel's foreign ministry and she explained why she thinks the israeli operation was justified. this is a terror game as ation that we're fighting terrorism is a sham that's one to bring destruction disagreement here it was not about him us it was about civilians innocent civilians they're being killed here yes and unfortunately the from us uses these people as human shields you know it's a war it is there on a number of occasions you know where civilian objects are located in specifically this particular school why is it that israel has not heeded that you know and also said that they found missiles into one risk pools they went out and said it that's you and schools that were used to hide missiles this is just another one when israel was warned about this that you know there are civilians in the school sheltering also u.n. secretary ban ki-moon cold your action a war crime but you know why does this not unsettle you it unsettles us a lot we would not want to be in this situation in the first place that's why in

the beginning we did not start a military operation but once you have rockets flown at you again and again we've passed the three thousand rockets that were shot at us in the last month three thousand rockets holy you went out and declared that the hamas has to be militarized meaning they understand that hamas has to withdraw all their weapons and stop being a threat to the people of israel and they said if you can look at what merkel said you can look at what obama said so i actually actually we have a lot of support. now israel has a long history of mobilizing against its opponent opponents but whether it achieves the desired aims is up for debate in the two thousand and six israel invaded lebanon to take on fighters the result a group got stronger and the causeway held it in to power in beirut since then there have been four devastating wars between israel and hamas but now the former

rival sides fatah and hamas a form a unity government and in doing so only strengthening opposition to the i.d.f. also the human cost of those bloody conflicts is what has really gained traction in people's minds inflicting damage to israel's international image in twenty thirteen it found itself among the world's least popular countries according to a b.b.c. poll. well when the operation was in a full swing there were israeli troops for for whom enough was enough fifty one israeli soldiers have refused to be part of what they refer to as a massacre in gaza we can talk to one of them now it's severe joins us. well how is it so much for joining us here on our international as we just mentioned none of these really operations can be considered a major success and do you outline for us if you could how you became disillusioned at serving in the israeli army.

i would say i always have i have always had complicated feelings about it even during my military service it wasn't it wasn't clear to me that. that it that i felt that it was the right thing to do. but the fact that we're having this military operation in such a short period of time following the past to in gaza. did it did stress to me that that using military solutions isn't necessarily effective and emphasized how central. these kinds of solutions are in israeli society although i want to say that the military operation is not what got me to get involved with this letter it's not what led to the letter being written it was actually done quite

a while before this operation began while it in your opinion how successful were israeli operations. before and you know right now what's your take as someone who actually you've been there and done. i feel that the fact that we're that we are at the point that we are at. indicates that they were not very successful. if you know success is a successful operation is supposed to bring quiet peace however you want to call it and that is clearly not what happens. although again that's not the that's not the only. factor into the letter it's not only about operation. ok was a result of your decision have you felt any repercussions i mean was there any public backlash or any reaction from the israeli government to your step.

not from the government and not responses that i experienced personally nothing very intense in general it's at this period of time it's very difficult to be opposed to the operation in any way or to the military in any way it's. very much out of the consensus everybody most of the country is behind this operation feels that it is justified of so expressing a point of view that that is not in line with that. is not a comfortable thing to do right now and this letter. is only is only one. is only one example of that. because of of. the public then vironment right now i have actually been a little bit afraid to to. show my involvement in the letter to to make

a point of it as much as i would have me be before the operation. yeah it's a difficult time right now to be opposed to either the military in general or this operation in particular all right tell we appreciate your thoughts here on r.t. international callous appear former israeli soldier thanks for talking to us. and right now we're getting breaking news reports according to their spittle at two start american general has been killed after a foreign military academy near kabul was attacked by an unknown gunmen dressed in an afghan army uniform a german brigade general was also severely wounded and at least three people have been killed in all and fifteen wounded no group has admitted carrying out the attack but foreign security forces aid workers and civilians are often targeted by the taliban as the u.s. led coalition continues its was drawn from the country. now the decision to

scale back the operation in a follows a chorus of global condemnation in israel britain is reviewing its eight billion pound weapons agreement with the country while spain has moved to become the second country to ban arms sales to tel aviv former your m.p. paul murphy told us why he thinks countries are responding. well what we're seeing across the world is revulsion amounts horror at the states terror imposed by israel and the people of gaza in particular and we've had very significant protests really right around the world some of the biggest protests in history in favor of the rights of the palestinians and bodies having pressure on for example the spanish government on the british government even on the u.s. government fundamentally. you know western imperialism western capitalism in the us the major powers and you support israel with the function that kind of repressive

state that it is with the likes of people three billion dollars a year in military funding from the u.s. . they do support israel because they think israel can be a safe basis for them in what is a vital region put their called me up against the revulsion of ordinary people and so that's why you have a potion of pressure on governments you know even the fact that the u.n. is forced by ki-moon is forced to describe what's happening as a war crime they are somewhat new developments and it's going to i mean the scale of the horror of what israel has drawn but also the fact that people have mobilized around the world and these are the latest pictures from birmingham we're getting them from our abruptly video agency pro palestinian campaigners have a launched a fresh action urging for an end to israel's attacks on palestinians and as you can see they have placed the battered u.k. stop arming israel on a local factory which they claim is lying arms or the operations in gaza. online

a sickening game appeared recently in one of the world's biggest app stores challenging players to bomb a mosque while trying to avoid civilian casualties. for more details of that. and after the break islamic state fighters who have savagely and murders lee conquered parts of syria and iraq are now in lebanon stay with us as we ask whether any force is capable of stopping them. in justifying their stance they're citing all sorts of what they see as international precedents in cost of what they are coming referendum in scotland but the response that they're hearing from the one thing that what you're saying is illegitimate but what we've been doing is just a little like america if you break into they're still. america does is right. the people for centuries like russia are all countries like this straight. but

whatever america does is right because america doesn't. do we speak your language i mean some of the worn out of the. news programs and documentaries and spanish what matters to you breaking news a little turn is of angles the story. here. the spanish find out more visit. welcome back you're watching r.t. a group of british business leaders say sanctions against russia over the mh seventeen crash won't help resolve the crisis they say it the best way to build

trust between countries is through trade and contact moscow is now preparing its own response to the sanctions and that's according to prime minister dmitry medvedev there are reports it is considering limiting or banning european flights from crossing is airspace to asia artie's katie pilbeam takes a look at the potential consequences. beyond now. all of the holiday season people wishing to travel to asia from europe could find themselves caught up in all the function cayle so in response to european sanctions grounding one of russia's low cost airlines russia is now considering shutting down its major transit routes for european and lives so far as you can see from this map we've taken recently from flight trader twenty four dot com the flights are performed through russia's siberia right because it's short and therefore cheaper which

ultimately means a cheaper ticket for the consumer if russia was to close this route your holiday flight from europe to asia will be several hours long and it's already a one off right now in fact the european allies will need about four thousand kilometers to their routes which equates to an extra thirty thousand dollars per fly airlines source quoted by a domestic media outlet at m.s.k. says the possible losses of western allies could amount to one billion euros in just three months and ultimately it's actually you the consumer that would be paying more money even though you've got the inconvenience of having to fly for a longer. airline for you today if you're just a former n.s.a. contractor edward snowden may be trying to keep a low profile while in russia is lot of theater must of god the better of him he was thought of enjoying a performance at moscow's famous bolshoi warning that dot com. also

japanese anime fans are gathered after a crimean prosecutor who became famous the world over after she was turned into a sexy cartoon character online is blacklisted by tokyo find out why on our website r.t. the. washington is accused of putting hells initiatives around the world risk monday it was revealed that in a hiv prevention program was used to send a young latin americans to cuba to stir up political unrest guy to account has more . it's no longer a secret that some of the u.s. government's aid programs have a dual purpose the u.s. agency for international development usaid known for overseeing billions of dollars in u.s. humanitarian aid was dispatching venice oil and poles to weaken and peruvian young people to cuba hoping to provoke a revolution in their young latinos often posed as tourists they traveled across

the country and recruited people whom they believe they could turn into political activists a form administrator with a venezuelan over the station who participated in this effort said there was no safety net for these inexperienced workers if they were caught by cuban authorities so the spying program involving the use when don't even after the scandalous the rest of the album gloss in two thousand and nine who worked as a stop contract with the usa he's now serving a fifteen year sentence in cuba the u.s. trying to foment on wednesday in cuba is nothing new of course but this latest investigation by the associated press reveals how humanitarian aid programs were used to that end such as in a child the prevention workshop in memos obtained by the a.p. is labeled as what i called the perfect excuse for the programs political goals the government actually is they are hiding the fact that some of their programs have a dual purpose speaking about this they should be workshop program the usaid said quote it enable support for cuban civil society while providing

a secondary benefit of addressing the desired cubans express information and training about the prevention. fighter jets not the most comforting side as you come in to land on your plane and that's what happens on this qatar airways jet coming into britain's manchester airport a few hours ago pilot radioed ahead saying they had been told of a suspicious device on board the air bus three hundred thirty he landed safely a male passenger wasn't arrested for making a hoax bomb threat fighters from the islamic state movement who are moving fast across the middle east have now gained their first ground in lebanon the bloodthirsty group already controls swathes of land in iraq and syria they have captured the lebanese city of or so on the syrian border after days of heavy fighting islam must have set up checkpoints but have not yet declared

the city part of the caliphate they've announced on the occupied territories of syria iraq the lebanese militant group hezbollah has vowed to help the army to retake ourself from the jihad is. it's not the only time when there is fear that some other places could be also a source of tension as it is in the north and border of lebanon in tripoli kind of think sometimes but eventually the lebanese army. will be able to carry. us but we don't have to rush saying this is going to be all over and. this will probably take maybe take some days i may be. months before lebanon come put this behind it. a reminder the breaking news from afghanistan germany's der spiegel magazine is reporting that a two star american general has been killed after foreign military academy near

kabul was attacked by an unknown gunman dressed in an afghan army uniform a german brigade general is among the fourteen others wounded three people are known to have died no group has admitted carrying out the tab but foreign security forces aid workers and civilians are often targeted by the taliban as the u.s. led coalition continues its withdrawal from afghanistan well more news of the top of the hour here on out here national until that is our special report on the murky side of the fishing industry don't go away. a few weeks ago we discussed detroit's plans to shut off water to those who can't pay their bills logically what a basic human assessor he could get taken away some protesters gathered to give their opinion on the issue at our plaza and what is the response from the state maybe some sort of dialogue or explanation as to why they have to turn off the

water you know they turned up on the high tech quote non lethal weaponry against the protesters they used an el red system which basically blasted the protesters with sound which sounds unintended humane until you look into it and read that the weapon can cause permanent hearing loss the company even admits this is true at less than fifteen meters we see all across the country so-called non-lethal weapons being used to very harmful and even to well we thought ns but why does this happen because they make breaking up protest easy unsafe for the cops remember in the old days when you had to physically break up protests or things like el read allow any coward to just flip a switch to disperse a crowd with not a drop of blood visible and the fact that it seems not harmful as the police to be justified in using it whenever they want for the sake of the constitution i think no police forces should be able to use this technology but that's just my opinion.

the baltic is one of the most polluted seas in the world. and some of the species they catch there have become toxic contaminating the pellets but also the entire food chain. in sweden i have an appointment with jen isaacson he's a greenpeace activist. he brings me to a fish up to buy fish caught in the region. now i'd like some herring and sound and sound. but before selling them to us the fishmonger is going to say something.