the picture of today's. from around the globe. in the weekly here on r.t. international a look at the top news from ukraine including fierce fighting in the country's east leading to a growing humanitarian crisis and blazing protest in central kiev. sanction skirmish moscow fights back against the e.u.'s punitive measures with a food import while ukraine says it could hold russia's energy transit to europe. israel and the palestinians agree to another seventy two hour ceasefire following talks in egypt follows a week of violence that has continued to take lives in gaza. and u.s. fighter jets make a comeback to iraq for three rounds of strikes against you how this militants but

washington is accused of fighting the same group it ate in syria. well thanks for joining us this hour my name's neil harvey and you're watching international. heavy armor is moving towards done yet because the ukrainian army prepares to unleash its forces to take the city it's already been extensively shelled and bombed. one of the latest strikes two apartment blocks in the city center were attacked in a week of assaults dozens of people were killed in the sense of two restive regions in the east. borders if you insist you were right.

or you are you. will. feel. that it made intensified attacks from the army the self-proclaimed republic says it's ready for a ceasefire to humanitarian crisis in the area and yes it is the regional capital on the heart of government resistance in ukraine. but it's also a vital hub for the entire country or elise it used to be it's ukraine's fifth largest city with a population of almost a million last year forbes named the most attractive city for doing business in the entire country is one of the state's main economic cubs and the center of the

nation's mining industry just two years ago you may remember tens of thousands of football fans from all across europe when it was a host city for the euro twenty twelve football championships but how things are changed even getting out of the area is now highly dangerous and this dash cam video shows a rocket presume to been fired from a missile launcher hitting a highway fortunately the driver there had a very lucky escape both of the people trying to get away from the violence they are fleeing to russia so maria fanaa should know when to one of the border crossing . in each of these cars individuals tori's of anger uncertainty and to loss. these ukrainians are fleeing their homes for russia after months of conflict has left well over one thousand civilians dead and reduced whole cities to rubble the people in these cars have already spent six or seven hours sitting in line waiting to cross the border which is still

a kilometer away but they say they are ready to wait as they practically have no other choice but bill overclock the mark well below average of muslims made up of the national city of. lavinia's mogahed got more snow with this don't you don't usually many of the cars here have a sign saying they've got children on board a war doesn't discriminate between age or gender only your child will i go to a city. in time to salute. him or put a little sheepish will that has pulled through his nose to make that little little . crystal plate you know each other you eat meat. this is where many refugees will end up when they make it across the border to russia and people here are angry because a saddam also brought a mare but i still not all feel lucy should have brought him so i'm a bit from her word it really could be so but i thought it didn't go so well but i

started to. go to the doctor says he's. to go back to your story of. your thoughts i'm sure you're going to remove. most of what are you and you used to use if you could be. he invites me to see where they found shelter the rest so many refugees many don't have a proper place to sleep through his wife also doctor tells us how she lost her home and is therefore does a before i know. it didn't have to be regular dorm farkle. to be. able to cover for the pressure this could be cheap this camp is designed for a thousand people but there are at least twice as much air now every afternoon officials managed to send up to three hundred refugees from eastern ukraine to

different parts of russia but every evening even more arrive these people have managed to escape a war but their fight for a peaceful life is just beginning. me from ocean r.t. from russian ukrainian border. the un says that more than seven hundred thousand refugees have crossed the russian border since the beginning of the conflict and the humanitarian situation in ukraine is grave moscow's offered aid to the embattled zones but washington said it's not russia's place to do so heated words fluid a u.n. security council meeting. given that ukraine has allowed international humanitarian groups to deliver aid within its territory there is no logical reason why russia should seek to deliver it. almost. apparently un philanthropists think children a better being. ignored pleas from russian human rights groups to move youngsters

to safety and what is the un think don't kids deserve to be safe. but with. this week more than four hundred ukrainian troops crossed the russian border appealing for sanctuary is the largest number of ukrainian military personnel to lay down arms and enter russia in a single go but it's not for the first time. we have witnessed so many doubts and other terrible things so it's not all of us are blue reasonably to be here while we've been given new clothes and managed to rest and we're very grateful for that which was about which when we were encircled we had no way out so to keep the manpower safe our commanders decided to escape to russia and i think for not clear reason the ukrainian population is destroying itself because on both sides we and they are the same people are not in the book.

the soldiers were placed in a special camp more than a third of them have now returned home their commander says he doesn't consider himself a deserted because he wanted only to save his men for kiev retaining the manpower necessary for its operation in the east hasn't proven easy despite launching three recruitment drives since the start of the crackdown gives army struggling to fill its ranks analysts say that the army needs more than eleven billion dollars to replace old weapons of machinery but only a little under eight hundred million was allocated to the military from the states reserve fund the soldiers are running out of food and have had to rely on handouts and here's a website set up by civil activists that calls on people to donate food to the army on top of that ukraine's leaders appear to be struggling to pay their soldiers and just recently the country's parliament introduced a military tax. and this week has also seen unrest in the capital of ukraine since thursday clashes have been flaring in kiev central square

saw thora to try to dismantle the camp there so really the scenes evoke a sense of deja vu this is what happened in kiev in february when the north ortiz also tried to remove protesters back then the clashes led to the overthrow of president yannick overage and here is an image from this week the government has changed but the dissatisfied protesters they remain dug in. raised crowds. car tires and even though intense clashes resulted in dozens of injuries in iraq one point he had to bear a form of mind an activist himself arrived at the scene to personally take part in the cleanup commentators believe that people feel deceived by the promises made to them. situations quite ironic to say the least since the revolution seem to take this is the return the government they have right now is simply replaced the other

and they're simply at a point of exit right now where it seems like nothing much exchange overall plus there's a civil war in east some forces from the might don have gone on into power and they are now acting against those that are outside of power that have political differences with the regime that has come to power and so we see a lot of ideological differences petty personality fighting and really a power play among different factions. food producers on both sides of the atlantic of war and russia's ban on western imports could lose the billions of dollars restrictions were imposed after the u.s. and the you along with other nations hit moscow with sanctions over what they say is its influence in the ukraine crisis peeta all of the story. no market for those that back sanctions russia's ban on the import of certain food stamps from the us

canada australia all the way you said response to the economic sanctions imposed on moscow the ban will block meat fruit vegetables some dairy and fish imports for one year those watching international trade say this shows that russia is a different animal to other nations sanctions recently what's striking is that when the sanctions were ramped up against iran there was very little iran could do the west didn't really need much from iran that's not the case with russia and i think russia has made very clear that it will retaliate in a proportionate manner with european cultures set to bear the brunt of the import ban e.u. leaders that backed sanctions against russia look likely to face farmers an export is demanding compensation for their losses there's someone there now it's going to affect us all for us it will take two or three months to collect our remaining crops of oranges and we don't know what will happen if no one buys them and the

national put it it's a disaster for my company will need to stop production the money will receive without imports to russia won't even be enough to pay for the buses that bring our staff to work. so i don't know what we're going to do if this continues the industries being threatened in our region we have dedicated to good part of our produce to this market and so this is very dramatic force and european food exports to russia were worth over twelve billion euros last year just to win yet and then land with the first to contact brussels about compensation some estimates suggest the ban could cost the finnish economy four hundred million euro mostly from dairy exports elsewhere the german trade union that deals with wholesale foreign trade said the ban posed a risk to the economy in his coming. three in greece the opposition party says that accuse the current government's actions of being detrimental to farming and in

ireland the minister for agriculture said there was real worry particularly regarding cheese exports which were valued at four point five million euro in twenty thirteen european analysts are warning that sanctions aren't the way to find a solution free trade is a key for peace we shouldn't be in this game of tit for tat thing or we sanctions we we should be negotiating the same table but as it stands russian consumers are going to have to go without certain imports and western exports is going to be locked out the russian market peter all over party ukraine is planning its own sanctions against moscow on tuesday the parliament's expected to vote on measures outlined by the prime minister which could include stopping the transit energy supplies to europe so let's take a look at what that could mean for the buys of russian gas in the e.u. right now the e.u. gets about a third of its gas from russia with most of that delivered via ukraine cutting the route off could be harmful for the industry of some european countries takes the

vakeel bug area for example which are almost entirely powered by russia many others rely on their gas as a main source as well the scheme could be replaced by the south stream as a pipeline project the bypasses ukraine its construction is being hindered by e.u. law makers but southern nations say they're ready to push through construction foreign affairs expert no bush believes that washington is pushing for a gas blockade with little regard for the ease well being. well it's not a question of what you have wants it's what people who are running want because let's face it the government in kiev is the question is how much it's being controlled from washington not if if the regime in kiev is entirely under control washington this is an attempt another attempt to make the sanctions. sit d.e.u. far more than the russian sanctions already have. and it's basically the european

union is paying the price of washington's attempts to restart the cold war they hope to stay with us plenty more news on the way for you after this short break. i'm abby martin the stories we cover here we're not going to hear any right other big story the facts are that like the same time there's a reason they don't want international airport and the phrase that we should all be completely outraged now let's break the set. when the european union promised to net ukraine become part of it it clearly contributed to the exact abrasion of tensions within ukraine and ukraine will not become part of the european union who won't tell tales ukraine absolutely doesn't have the economic level to become part of the e.u. or then.

welcome back israel and palestinians have agreed to a new seventy two hour ceasefire the truce will reportedly begin at nine pm g.m.t. now this week witnessed a new wave of violence with civilians in gaza are again bearing the brunt the sides have restarted hostilities of the previous talks to prolong a cease fire brought little result.

it was. i. i. mean i. was only. a month long conflict claimed more than nineteen hundred lines that left gaza in ruins and the return of us to brings the region even closer to humanitarian disaster tens of thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged by israeli strikes universities hundreds of schools and mosques were rendered into rubble reports a home for a million people were displaced that's almost a third of the population more than a million civilians there's no fresh drink couple water bill vanessa feltz from human rights watch told r.t. it is fair to run the israeli operation in gaza a war crime. gaza's infrastructure is on the brink of collapse there has been

such massive destruction in areas that the israeli military declared a no go zone that covered almost half of gaza's territory we've seen cease fires in the past be held up as justifications when western countries or the israeli military claims that hamas violated the cease fire in the past that has been held up as a justification and a claim that any future civilian deaths would be the responsibility of hamas for violating the cease fire the laws of war need to stop being violated and that finally for once in gaza there needs to be criminal accountability for war crimes. and the deaths in gaza sparked massive protests across the globe over the weekend tens of thousands of people united in a willed white day of rage against the israeli offensive the latest taking place in brussels meanwhile the new york several hundred marched to the u.n. headquarters to protest the killing of palestinians on the go. there's a blockade a rally in the german capital for more than

a thousand waving palestinian flags and chanting antiwar slogans while the largest protest took place in mass a in france and their crowds condemned president alone for his support of israel sanctions and more than twenty thousand people gathered in london slamming the government for sponsoring israel and accusing the b.b.c. of biased and unfair coverage destruction of guards are also brought many dissenting voices from within the israeli armed forces or slayer talk to some of them. you know that there are a lot of soldiers a come back and say to yourself you know what the hell are we doing here you know why are we using so much force why are we treating them as a way hanna is one such form israeli soldier she calls herself an anti occupation activist and was one of fifty percent of troops to sign an open letter to the washington post refusing reserve duty buccaneer showed a lot about during the service i didn't talk about this thing in so many out there you just a part of it but more and more soldiers are choosing not to be part of an army

increasingly seen as the bully in the region we are spending billion billion a rural or. different through the system and there is no top of different truth. for. the possibility overcoming five wars in eight years levanon two thousand and six thirty four days more than eight hundred people killed and in the end israel faced an even stronger hizbollah four devastating wars with a months two thousand and six eight twelve and fourteen thousand skilled international outrage and in the end israel faced a unity government between former rivals hamas and fatah foreign policy was. we had four years in the which we lost the middle east. we lost. we in a way lost egypt. do we of. the in the middle east and many would

argue more vulnerable the latest operation protective it has done seemingly little to protect israel in the long term you're not going to finish by trying to physically destroy hamas there is and there's nothing that indicates that it will work this time or indeed the next time and that's taking its toll on the reputation of what was once considered one of the world's most efficient fighting forces the hope is that the coming days will see a permanent cease fire in place but bottom line gaza is in tatters mistrust between israelis and palestinians is add an all time high policy r.t. tel aviv. a passenger plane has crashed immediately after takeoff at an airport in the iranian capital tehran the aircraft was carrying up to forty eight people reports say thirty nine of them were killed came down in a residential area five kilometers from the runway injuring several people on the

ground early reports suggest the crash may have been caused by an engine problem including this accident there have been at least seventeen fatal crashes involving a rainy and planes since two thousand sanctions imposed on the country prohibit it from buying new aircraft or spare parts hindering the maintenance of fleets aviation expert crissy aids thinks the western sanctions of undermine the safety of iran's passenger jets. but talking about an aging fleet of aircraft we're also talking about the fact that. lines within parts of the world have long been starved of the spares needed to maintain those craftily says primarily because of the sanctions that have been imposed so the fleet getting olds the bits for the. in short supply or nonexistent or

indeed being bought on the black market for which there is no. safety guarantee. at a web site for more scandal at the n.s.a. is he trying to secretly persuade a judge to delete parts of a public transcript from a court case about illegal surveillance or get more on our story at r.t. dot com also there helicopters drones dogs all resources are thrown into a massive search operation four year old girl survived almost two weeks lost in siberia you can read this story on our web site. u.s. military carried out four rounds of their strikes on radical islamists in iraq who are seeking to expand their zone of influence in the country f. eighteen fighters and drones targeted artillery and military convoys belonging to the islamic state terror group jihadists to seize oil rich territories in the northwest of iraq claiming an islamic caliphate there and are now advancing on

kurdish controlled regions during the militants have surrounded some half a million people from the religious minority they were trying to flee to turkey but were trapped by the extremists and facing execution unless they convert to islam hundreds have already been killed defending the kurdish minority was among the key reasons president obama gave the authorizing at strikes while promising u.s. involve. that will be strictly limited to some of our guests suggested the jihadists were given more than a leg up by the u.s. . we really have to look at reorientation of western foreign policy in the middle east that has to take place because right now we have a situation where the west is opposing isis rebels in northern iraq and right we saw but has been tacitly or implicitly supporting them in syria is madness these are u.s. weapons are u.s. weapons on all sides in this combat just stares three years ago in libya and in so

many wars when you are the top supplier of weapons to the world seventy nine percent of of weapons transfers into the middle east or from the united states you're going to have u.s. weapons on all sides which is just fine for absolutely our weapons makers looking for a profit but it's just struction. and clashes erupted in berlin when a rally against the advance of these law mixtape fighters was itself a tank speired group of is the missed supporters violence broke out as around three hundred people voiced their support for kurdish families by radical militants in iraq and a similar protest in the hague saw dutch police intervene leaving one officer injured finally was again triggered by a gang backing the militants chanted islamic slogan six people were arrested. a suicide bomber has targeted a nato convoy in kabul killing four civilians and injuring at least thirty five

others this comes after a high ranking u.s. general was shot dead during a brazen insider attack by an afghan soldier at a military university this week several of the nato members including a german general were wounded the pentagon says the officer is the most senior military official to have been killed in action overseas since the vietnam war the assailant who served in the afghan army for three years was also killed in a shootout. taliban praised the attack but didn't claim responsibility fence analysts say if the believes that the incident reflects the among many afghans after years of having international military presence in the country this highlights the large discontent among the afghan population for the presence of international military forces for over a decade that gonna stop them and. you know this latest incident and student it's just a boiling over of that frustration of military presence military operations that

haven't necessarily work to provide afghans with basic security and and you know the human security needs that the population needs livelihoods jobs education and infrastructure that provides roads and sanitation. next you can come backstage of this international literally but it's almost as good trust me the latest installment of news team coming away. during a press briefing president barack obama said something very unusual and used a certain term you almost never hear from a government bureaucrat he told the audience that in the immediate aftermath of nine eleven we america did some things that were wrong we did a whole lot of things that were right but we tortured some folks here it is

a rare thing to hear someone in the white house admit to torturing people after nine eleven but the question is why did he say this now please allow me to suspect first obama is the teleprompter master since he loves to read off a screen i doubt this was some sort of slip up this was probably done consciously but why well it always helps if you look good by condemning the moral failings of previous presidents liberals and democrats love to hate bush so this could be substance kind of pandering or trying to look good by compare. some headlines like obama condemns torture some nice and drawn out the fact that he sure approves of shelling civilians in eastern ukraine if obama really does feel that the post nine eleven torture was a shameful part of american history then as the leader of the executive branch of the nation he could do a lot to punish those who did the torture then and prevent it from happening again in the future but if i do obama this is all just a bunch of sweet talk but that's just my opinion.

of the news today and made signs of more tragic progress a secret peace talks to many many. supposed red square demonstrations are feaster case saying what you are sick you see the game itself. we are in a similar.