critical issues facing are you ready to join the movement and walk. in this edition of the weekly we look at key events across ukraine including the conflict in the east and more protests in the capital central. also moscow imposes a food imports by responding to e.u. sanctions while ukraine considers halting russia's energy transit to europe. israel and the palestinians agreed to another seventy two hour ceasefire talks in egypt it follows a week of violence that has continued to take lives. and also this hour u.s. jets complete four rounds of strikes against hamas in iraq amid accusations that washington is finding the same group that it's arming insurgents.

you're watching the weekly here on r t international iraq all of the top stories from the past seven days and right up to the minute the violence as well my name's welcome to our top story kiev's army has surrounded the city of. nearby town at the regional capital which was shelled all day on sunday. there were similar scenes earlier in the week two apartment blocks in the city center suffered significant damage from constant bombardments local residents the scribes the horrors of the deadly attacks. but want to send you on says you i did not know why.

i feel the media folk that overthrow desertion have. given up looking. for you it was a national. poll. government activists in the nets say they're ready for a ceasefire with kiev forces in order to prevent further civilian deaths just about every neighborhood in the city has been bombarded and there are food on the electricity shortages not long ago donetsk was a completely different place let's have a look at some facts about the country's fifth largest city the nats have a population of nearly one million people in forms named the best place for business in ukraine last year it's been one of the nation's key economic hub is on

the center of its mining industry and a couple of years ago the nets host the euro twenty twelve football championship matches well today driving around in nets could lead to things like this you're watching a missile hit a highway but the driver who filmed it extremely lucky to escape on harmed many others have fled the embattled city and ended up in russia relief a national met some of those refugees up the border. in each of these cars individual stories of anger uncertainty and 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. well below average of muslims made up of the national. guard 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 the war doesn't discriminate between age or gender. it's. in time to salute. no. but he was off with a little sheepish will get us closer to his nose the way that little little girl if you close the plate you know which of you which is and this is where many refugees will end up when they make it across the border to russia and people here are angry . because i saw them or so but also my but i still not all to worship shirt abroad so i maybe try measure what it really could be so but i'll start yet skeptical but i started. with the quarter the dr says he's planning his need

to go back to ruin your story of the mud on. your thoughts enjoy your rush for abortion rights group over for. most of what are you and your good here to use if you could be after. he invites me to see where they found shelter the rest so many refugees many don't have a proper place to sleep. because his wife also doctor tells us how she lost her home and you served as a before i don't know. if you need to be a regular dom before. you get up 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 around these people have managed to escape but their fight for a peaceful loan is just beginning. to meet notion r.t. from russian ukrainian border. the un say seven hundred thirty thousand refugees have fled to russia from eastern ukraine since the beginning of the your moscow also offered aid for those this placed inside ukraine but washington says there's no need for the type of help given that ukraine has allowed international humanitarian groups to deliver aid within its territory there is no logical reason why russia should seek to deliberate. almost. apparently u.n. philanthropists think children a better. ignores pleas from russian human rights groups to move youngsters to safety and what does the un think kids deserve to be safe.

this week more than four hundred ukrainian troops crossed into russia because they didn't want to fight for the kiev government anymore it's happened before but there were never so many soldiers laying down their arms at the same time. well we have all witnessed so many deaths and other terrible things so all of us are very happy to be here we've been given new clothes and managed 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 we and they are the same people are not in the book the soldiers were harvest in a special account almost half of them have since returned home he is having

a hard time recruiting new soldiers on it was already fighting helping complaining of terrible conditions faulty equipment and incompetent commanders the army says it needs eleven billion dollars to update its weapons and for other needs but ukraine struggling to provide the cash on the soldiers are now running out of food there's a charity website also set up to help them out and ukrainian troops well they're far from being paid good wages too and i citizens are being forced to fund a military times. the events that are happening in ukraine now can be traced back to protests and kiev's independence square which led to a government coup in the winter and the iconic landmark has seen a new wave of violent clashes and demonstrations this week just like back in february people are refusing to leave the camp that they set up on the square back then the violent clashes led to the overthrow of president. but many of those who

are still come to believe the revolution is not yet finished they are unhappy with some of the people who came to power in ukraine. seemed to miss it. at least. some in the crowd burned car tires and others even set their own fire a number of police officers were injured when they clashed with the demonstrators he had his marriage to tell the court came in to help this multiple the ten count he was enough to just on that same independence were just months earlier some say people are still on my down because they haven't seen the changes to the expected. situations quite ironic to say the least since the revolution seemed to take in three hundred sixty degree turn the government they have right now is simply replaced the other and they're simply to a point of exit right now where it seems like nothing much has changed over all 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 katie personality fighting and really a power play among different factions. russia's ban on western imports could cost food producers billions of dollars it comes in response to the e.u. the u.s. and a number of other nations imposing sanctions on moscow following what they say is russia's influence in the ukrainian crisis peter all of her does the psalms. for those that back sanctions russia's ban on the imports of certain food stamps from the u.s. canada australia go away have you seen response to the economic sanctions imposed almost sco the bun will block meat fruit vegetables some dairy and fish imports for

one year those watching international trade shows that russia is a different other mo to other nations sanctions recent. what's striking is that when the sanctions were ramped up against iran there was very little a wrong 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 i've just said to bear the brunt of the import ban e.u. leaders that backed sanctions against russia look likely to face farmers in exports is demanding compensation for their losses there's someone there now it's going to affect us all with a virus 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 from 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 terms of. i don't know what we're going to do if this continues. being threatened in our region we have dedicated to good part of our produce to this market and so this is very dramatic force that european food exports to russia were worth over twelve billion euros last year between year and finland were 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 that posed a risk to the economy in his country in greece the opposition party says 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 a warning that sanctions aren't the way to find

a solution free trade is a key for peace we shouldn't be in these game of tit for tat thing we sanction is we we should be negotiating the same table but as it stands russian consumers are going to have to go with out certain imports western exports is going to be locked out the bush market peter all other party. ukraine is considering its own sunshines against russia on tuesday and the parliament is expected to vote on measures by the prime minister which could include stopping the transit of energy supplies to europe let's go take a look at what that could all mean for buyers of russian gas in the right now the bloc 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 take slovakia or both carrier for example which are almost entirely powered by russian

many others rely on its gas as a main source as well of course this could be replaced by sidestream a pipeline project bypassing ukraine altogether its construction is being hindered by e.u. lawmakers though which some other nations say they're ready to push through construction nevertheless down the mccallum's executive director of the ron paul institute believes that the consequences of a gas blockade will be drops that for ukraine the. really what ukraine is is doing is committing economic suicide in the us it's so demanding that the e.u. apply its own sanctions is demanding that the europeans commit economic suicide but remember ukraine is spending six million dollars a day on its war against the people in the east of that country this money is is borrowed money well i find it ironic that the most bellicose of nations and i'm thinking particularly of poland and its foreign minister radek sikorski he is the

one who is taking the most pleasure and sticking it to russia while the average hole is going to have an awfully bitter winter this year thanks to sikorsky as you know poland i think it's around ninety percent of its gas its energy from russia so they will be called all the baltic states are also heavily dependent they're also particularly bellicose against russia so in a way they're cutting off their own noses to spite their faces. still to come on the program a small passenger plane crashes in the arena and capital thirty nine out of the forty eight people on board are reported to have been killed as the earth craft came to mind right after takeoff. special forces loyal to iraq's prime minister have been deployed in the center of baghdad according to sources the military is controlling entrances to the city a curfew is expected and guards at the presidential palace have been put on high

alert after nuri al maliki gave a tough speech accusing the president of violating the constitution or the field to support maliki's third term bade us prime minister on sunday a constitutional deadline to nominate a new prime minister expired meanwhile the u.n. and the u.s. repeated their calls for a bank to come up with an all inclusive government to discuss this we cannot cross live to independent or research separate poor thanks indeed for joining us there's already been speculation of a coup with these troops in baghdad how do you view the situation. well we hear different stories some believe that the coup is imminent and it's going to be against the president and some blue the coup is against the prime minister and i personally believe that if the united states is a have behind the president who took office on the twenty fourth of july then it's more likely that the who is. against or is it may be taken against the prime

minister who in fact has had whether we like him or not he does have the mandate of the people he in toward the end of last year iraq or ruled out the limits term limits and and mr maliki who was the who won many seats more than the previous elections in parliament became the prime minister who was nominated. and there's france for for him by the people but he's never been favored by the united states and we keep hearing sectarian violence terry and violence both even as early as two thousand and four the kurds and arabs the sonny and the shiites skills that we have all been invaded it's not just the son you're a kurd that's being invaded and the united against this occupation and and and. powers and their allies return our eyes went to work to in fact

create this division to weaken the resistance towards the occupation and as your viewers would well know mr maliki was the one that in fact used to allow the united states military to stay on definitely indefinitely scuse me and this was not something that had been planned from the onset of the. iraq war the invasion america was building enduring bases and they were minister it is the school of clubs and restaurants and pulls and what have you this was not a short term. liberation or whatever it was called it was meant to be an occupation in fact to control the stuti region there the persian gulf and to not only to have launched to safeguard israel but only to a but also tied to iraq meet you ryan in syria so that the count has or has been for permanent bases and permanent troops there i just want to butt in because we

know that washington has already voiced its support for iraq's president what does this all mean for prime minister maliki been. they have been saying for a long time now that they want maliki to resign that he should be out and it's really mind boggling this washington should be deciding who's voted into office who can stay in office and who should go out it's got nothing to do with washington unless we as a as a can global community as people around the world accept that washington determines every government around the world and was going to get reaction to that you're going to have people who will react to two. hours determining who should be running our office in a given country so things would escalate if washington doesn't just finally briefly let's talk a little but the timing of the political crisis it's happening just days after the u.s. renewed its military operation how does that all tie in. i don't think there are

any coincidences in political actions and you can bet that there was plenty of things ten steps ahead of time there go things just the united states i think every country does plan ahead and they quote in a difficult so in that it comes that huge days after their military planning it should not come as a surprise. and everything that has been happening up to this point all the violence we've been seeing all the atrocities that have been brought to our living grounds let's support america's actions and interference in iraq again and i don't think we should believe for a moment to this is humanitarian because in elsewhere especially next door syria they're arming basically the same groups to overthrow the president of that territory so it's not humanitarian and i don't think we should ever. quit.

or believe that there is. ok independent author and research is try a separate poorly refined for your input this hour and. the deepening political crisis comes just as washington authorized a new military operation in iraq this week u.s. jets carried out four rounds of earth strikes on jihad as militant sweeping iraq's north and approaching the capital of the semi autonomous kurdish region f. eighteen fighters on drones targeted militants artillery positions and vehicles using the kurdish military in their attempts to push the islamic state group back as a result of a summer offensive the jihad has some seized oil rich territories in the north west of iraq the plains in the slum of colorfully there. hundreds of thousands of people from the yazidi religious minority had to flee the militants who are threatening to kill them on this the convert to islam seeking to escape to turkey refugees ended

up surrounded by johannes to in a month in this region. kill five hundred cities while scores more reportedly died stranded on the moment and the u.s. president has named protecting minority groups as one of the main goals of the country's military involvement but some of our guests suggest the hottest offensive was inadvertently aided by washington in the first place we really have to look at the real audience of western foreign policy in the middle east the hostage the place because right now we have a situation where the west is opposing isis rebels in northern iraq and rightly so but has been tacitly ordered personally supporting them in syria is madness these are u.s. weapons u.s. weapons on all sides in this combat just as 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 are from the united states and you're

going to have u.s. weapons halt on all sides which is just fine for absolutely our weapons makers looking for a profit fuel just struction. islamists reportedly just captured another city in the north of iraq earlier a suicide blast killed ten kurdish fighters there the so-called peshmerga forces were defeated after days of fierce clashes with militants according to reports kurdish fighters earlier regain control over two other towns in the north. now a new seventy two hour ceasefire between israel and the palestinians came into effect at nine pm g.m.t. on sunday this week witnessed a fresh wave of violence with civilians in gaza again bearing the brunt the sides restarted hostilities after previous talks to prolong a cease fire brought little result. he was. i.

mean i am. i was made did i leave again let me know. a month long conflict honestly more than one thousand nine hundred lives has left gaza in ruins on the return of hostilities brings the region ever closer to a humanitarian disaster tens of thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged by a truly strikes universities hundreds of schools and mosques were rendered into rubble reports say half a million people were displaced is almost a third of the population for more than a million civilians there's also no fresh drinking water build on a scale from human rights watch told r.t. it's fair to brum the israeli operation 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. the deaths in gal's a spark months of protests across the globe over the weekend tens of thousands of people united in a worldwide day of rage against the israeli offensive with the latest rally taking place in brussels also in new york several hundred people marched to the u.n. headquarters to protest the killing of palestinians on the gas a blockade the german capital saw more than a thousand people leaving palestinian flags and chanting slogans one of the largest

protests took place in march saying from its worth crowds condemn president alond for his support of israel's actions more than twenty thousand people gathered in london slamming the government for sponsoring israel accusing the b.b.c. of quote biased coverage the destruction of gas it also brought many dissenting voices from within the israeli forces all asleep or spoke to some of them. you know that there are a lot of soldiers to 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 the best way is one such for me israeli soldier she calls herself an anti occupation activist and was one of fifty troops to sign an open later to the washington post refusing was talking national. during the service i didn't talk about this thing in so many other. they're 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 billions and billions

. on. the friends system and there is no total different with them they've already loophole. we are not prepared for it very well with a possibility to overcome it 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 for devastating wars with them us two thousand and six eight twelve and fourteen thousand killed international outrage and in the end israel faced a unity government between former rivals hamas and fatah foreign policy wise. we had four years in a way we lost the middle east. we lost. we in a way lost egypt. in very eyes in the middle east and many would

argue more vulnerable the latest operation protective age has done seemingly little to protect israel in the long term you're not going to finish by trying to physically to start hamas there isn't 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 at an all time high policy r.t. tel aviv. a small passenger plane crash reportedly killed thirty nine people in the arena and couple to run the aircraft came time right after takeoff if each an authority say about forty eight people were on board including at least five children it crashed in a residential area five kilometers from the runway injuring several people on the ground as well an engine problem is believed to have been the cause of the accident

there have been at least seventeen fatal crashes involving iranian planes since two thousand with the country perhaps added from buying your craft if you're an expert chrissy eight thinks western sanctions have undermined the safety for runs passenger jets but talking about an aging fleet of aircraft and we're also talking about the fact that. lines within parts of the world no longer being starved of the spares needed to maintain those. fully. primarily because of the sanctions are to be imposed so the fleet getting olds the bits for the aircraft in short supply or non-existent or indeed being bought on the black market for which there is no. safety guarantee. i'll be back with more news in.