i was once ukraine basically and in the same way. as the people who didn't ask. the area they how we would worship because as do they trust diversion good because all they've experienced recently is defector game nature shelling of civilian areas over recent days they just going to forgive and forget you believe it was diversion and as you say we were the allies in the shadows because. there will be hawks in washington and in london in brussels who will be pleased that it is. their eyes to. fascinating timing of announcement it's going to be interesting to see the rhetoric coming out of that nato summit afshin rattansi thank you very much for your time here on r.t. international tansey that host of going underground reacting to the developing and breaking news here on r.t. international this hour that is that president putin president putin's spokesman

has stressed that the russian and ukrainian presidents have not agreed on the cease fire is there is russia is not part of the conflict this is russia's response to the news that earlier king have announced a permanent ceasefire in eastern ukraine it's believed the two leaders discussed the issue over the phone self-proclaimed republics in the east say they're ready to sit down and discuss the conflict that safety have stopped its military assault ukraine's military crackdown on anti-government fighters has been going on for five months. and here is a tweet from the ukrainian president confirming the truce in the east of ukraine petro poroshenko says as a result of my phone conversation with the russian president we reached an agreement on a permanent ceasefire but i need to reiterate that russia saying they haven't agreed to a cease fire because they are not part of the conflict. well

now our let's go to our correspondent on the ground in eastern ukraine paula slayer who joins us paula this story is developing as we speak new information coming in to us what's the latest. well as you say we are hearing from the ukrainian president petro poroshenko a confirmation that he says was reached between him and the russian president vladimir putin when they held talks over the phone that there was now a permanent cease fire here in eastern ukraine according to pushing close office the two leaders discussed possible measures that need to be taken to end the fighting that has gone on for the better part of five months here primarily in the regions of lugansk and in it's going to what we're being told is that kiev says that both leaders are on the same page the reaction from leaders here in the republics of the netsky and lugansk initially is the same statement that they have been given for quite some time and that is that they are willing to end the

fighting they are willing to reach a diplomatic settlement but only if kiev stops with its shelling and if it shows that it really is committed to some kind of peace plan moving forward this announcement follows hot on the heels of a meeting earlier in the week between representatives from real guns going to meet scandal for eighty's in kiev in the belorussian capital of minutes going at that stage that meeting was the first time that the sides showed a direct commitment to push for a peace settlement that we were being told not to expect a major breakthrough and certainly there has been some kind of turnaround from these latest reports that do indicate that they might be a breakthrough in the works but i do want to say that the fighting on the ground is still continuing we are hearing from the kiev military that overnight some twenty incidents in which they were they say attacked by the anti-government fighters the anti-government fighters that i am in touch with say that the kiev army continues

to show primarily in the outskirts of dennett's we know of at least one civilian who was killed in the early hours of the smalling this does come as fighting over the past few days has seen the anti-government fighters on the offensive they have been managing to push back positions that were previously held by the ukrainian army. paula thank you very much for that update our teams paula snow there on the ground. in ukraine discussing aren't telling us the latest on this breaking story. well the situation in eastern ukraine has forced thousands of families to flee the violence that is more if a national now reports. it's already been a traumatic start for these two day old boy in the months up to his birth and amid heavy shelling in lugansk his mother and father desperately looked for a place to escape to be additional should be more robust because strachan and the bone marrow restaurants are going to stash until the crash and is to see his

brother like many lugansk also had to flee with no time for goodbyes relatives lost track of each other. and if the british terror group looking. back did. the case regardless of the political the judiciary murdered mr brett. if you go to a break i said suggest particularly in the beginning the drive has a reason your question the question is here that. here it is the since we have been at least you. know the budget chair and is the cia arrived here to give birth a tiny ukrainian village near the russian border still safe and calm there are the refugee moms here and while they say they are fine they worry for their baby's health.

and the woman's fears and not groundless almost all the babies were born with problems it's scary to deliver a time like this who don't know what the future holds for us or for him most women here had premature births which doctors say is very common in today's war torn ukraine many maternity homes in eastern ukraine like basic equipment today is put into force to get out of the moment we have a shortage of medication and oxygen and we're out of disposable catheters and other disposables we've got no contact with the perinatal center and so we have to fend for ourselves it's hard. to tell is a businessman from restore in southern russia but is originally from donetsk over the last three months he's been organizing humanitarian aid for his homelands troubled regions the charity he's ted list has received money and parcels from

around the globe his mission now is to deliver them. we deliver aid all over the place our volunteers practically shuttle on the front line it's dangerous over there so no one risks delivering their food and such like the tally is heading for the maternity home on the ukrainian. side of the border we were at earlier. check antics here others face terrorism on. the telly always cooperates with anti government soldiers without them he says the journey would be too dangerous this time alex is caught in his cargo an assignment he's done before. a couple of times we actually drove along the line of fire heavy machine gun fire the ground around us was smoldering probably from an artillery strike or a multiple rocket launcher. and exists says that humanitarian convoys are often targeted on purpose. which change cars all the time to avoid being spotted we use

various means of delivery. but have to renew of wrecking for our trip fatalities aid safely reaches its final destination food water and vital supplies for expectant mothers and newborns and here most of the patients have already been discharged for two more ready for the mall reef nationality in eastern ukraine. breaking news this hour on r.t. international president putin spokesperson has stressed the russian and ukrainian presidents have not agreed on a cease fire is russia is not a part of the conflict now it comes after kids have announced a permanent cease fire in the east of ukraine it's believed the two leaders discussed the issue over the fire in the self-proclaimed republics in the aist say they're ready to sit down and open dialogue if you have dust off its military assault a so-called anti terror operation ukraine's military crackdown on anti-government

fighters has been continuing for five months but ukraine kiev has now announced a permanent cease fire and here's a tweet from the ukrainian president confirming the news that her polish uncle says as a result of my phone conversation with the russian president we reached an agreement on a permanent cease fire. and the violence in the east of the country has taken a heavy toll on the people there according to a report from the un refugee agency since the start of the conflict more than seven hundred thousand ukrainians have fled the fighting to russia and on top of that there are more than one hundred thousand displaced inside the country itself many of the homes were destroyed by the army's indiscriminate artillery fire on the towns on the cities in the east of ukraine. we're now joined live by a moscow based editor and publisher of business news europe magazine thank you very much for joining us live developing story breaking news the ukrainian army has

suffered serious losses recently how big a factor do you think that could be in the decision and the timing of this announcement. i think it has everything to do with the decision in so much is after taking over as president poroshenko let's just ceasefire the previous time lapse and in effect launched a military assault to retake control of the whole country particularly in the east and as we went into the summit that will happen last week which is effectively open the formal beginning of the peace process there was a big push by the ukrainian army in order to end the conflict in order to take control of the territory however that push failed as the the pro russian separatists pushed back and i think became very clear within a matter of days there was no way the army ukrainian army was going to going to have a battlefield victory. stand that the clock is ticking on ukraine and this military

conflict cannot last forever the country is virtually bankrupt is living hand to mouth on i.m.f. and indeed they just last for the last for the last to be the two next period has to be constituted together because they're desperate for money and punishing her desperately needs to bring this conflict to an end because he has the whole work of twenty years of economic reforms headed for him before he can put the country back on its feet there has been a previous ceasefire which was breached by by both sides. has described this one as a permanent ceasefire what do you think the chances are that this one will last well you know it's actually down to the to the rebels in in the east to go along with this and the early reports come out shortly after brushing her statement said that they they would agree to a cease fire if the government calls ukraine army off and abide by

a cease fire so now we have everything on the table we need to begin the process however this fight is in the field and on both sides. very fragmented you know on the russian side sort of the pro russian side there's various groups fighting ukrainians and reports of russian regular troops on the ukrainian side creating an army but then there's also these so-called volunteer battalions which represent various radical groups and whether they can be persuaded to sign up to the cease fire remains to be seen so the whole thing remains fragile however this is really good news and as i said before the country itself definitely and desperately needs the fighting to end because the rest of the economy as you know is bankrupt and donetsk region remains the most productive part of the country and ukraine doesn't work without its so you're saying that kiev wants and needs ceasefire to last

doesn't have the control over those factions in the h. those extremist factions to be able to ensure that this does last this time well that remains to be seen and it's really clear as i said there's too many sort of so i mean autonomous groups fighting in ukraine it's not a simple us versus them scenario and the chick it's going to be to get you know the allies of the procureur rebels to sign up to this ceasefire however give withdrawals the ukrainian army then the remaining groups will be you seriously numbered and i don't think it's practical for them to continue fighting without the support of the government so the way is there to bring about a ceasefire but it remains fragile western governments have been ramping up the rhetoric against russia in recent recent months and weeks with the talk of escalating sanctions for example how do you think this announcement will change that narrative especially with the nato summit beginning in the next twenty four

hours indeed it's actually been getting quite scary i mean people have been calling for. either to attack the more sensible people have been saying at least for the way. two to two armed ukrainian army which would lead to you know a serious fight that. you know could suck when everybody else i'm beginning a lease to you could be and if not a wider war between the west and russia and no one wants to go there however i think that the west will have a muted reaction to this because at the end of the day it's only a cease fire in theory leaves the two sides the forces in place and it doesn't say anything about withdrawing the alleged russian support for the pro russian fighters in the east and going to be happy with the situation until all of those those military combatants are removed from the region and nothing has been said about that this is really just the first step in

a longer process of bringing about a workable peace that satisfies if you please demands and of course we know that russia has some very serious and difficult amounts of this making on ukraine and given the. election parliamentary elections by in october he's going to be very reluctant to concede much to the to the russian demands so it's going to be a very difficult few months before we get to some sort of end to this story from your understanding than from your what you've been reading do you get the feeling that this is going to lead to genuine and sincere dialogue this cease fire. yes it's a prerequisite i mean we are going into the main summit the beginning of this long and complicated negotiation which is in effect rebuilding european relations in the center of europe and posts of us context which hasn't been done and hasn't been addressed none of these questions have prerequisite is a ceasefire and now we've got that and so from that the the the rebels are meeting

with the contact group in minsk on friday to take up the next stage in the negotiations which is how the relations between the various regions and ukraine going to be organized with russia house russia can organize its relations trade in gas we've given have is that it is. used to mars and its desire to see ukraine move in its direction so there's a lot of very complicated questions and really this is kind of overdue in so much as a lapse of the soviet union no one's really thought about how to structure and her opinion relationships and so we're going to go through the process now a long difficult question. thank you very much for your time here on r.t. international it's been our saboteur business new europe reacting to the developing news here on r.t. international that news is that president putin spokes person has stressed that the russian and ukrainian presidents have not agreed on a ceasefire as russia is not part of a conflict that follows the news that early kiev announce president poroshenko

announced a permanent cease fire in eastern ukraine it's believed the two leaders discussed the issue. over the self-proclaimed republics in the east say that they are ready to open dialogue it stops its military assault ukraine's military crackdown on anti-government fighters has been ongoing for five months. and here is a tweet from the ukrainian president confirming that troops in the east of ukraine petro poroshenko says as a result of his phone conversation with the russian president has reached an agreement with putin. on a permanent cease fire. well let's now take a look at how the fighting between the ukrainian army and the anti-government forces has been unfolding lugansk and done yet sk regions which you can see here now they've been the focus of work here of course it's anti terror operation m to government forces used to control this territory but the army troops forced them

out closer to the regional capitals fighters now say that the area in orange is under their control ahmed driving the army out in the past few days they managed to seize around a dozen towns the ukrainian army is surrounded in several locations as well as you can see here in the latest incident hundreds of soldiers were encircled but were allowed to leave through humanitarian corridors and the government forces are closing in on the port city as well of mariupol they say they've blocked all the roads leading in and out of the city where after months of an army offensive eastern ukraine is devastated schools hospitals apartment blocks and houses are either badly damaged or completely destroyed. that's the first he didn't want to use the phone for you either got thirty even though this is you should look this is not very good when you think you use the readers and you might get

a little bit of the most of them says you know what even if you vote. for these aerial pictures show the remains of a village and they don't yet region in eastern ukraine which was devastated by the military campaign over the summer at least fifteen hundred people used to live here but as you can see houses lay in ruins most residents have fled and this is a school building and don't yet see itself which local say was hit by mortar fire children aged six to sixteen are supposed to start their school year or monday but are unable to get to class until repairs are carried out and that could take many months in fact many schools across the region remain shocked due to the extensive damage. meanwhile i'm to government fighters say they're ready for peace talks with kiev if the army does indeed stop its assault they're currently carrying out an operation to protect civilians. followed the fighters and one of their missions. we went beyond to government trying to meet outskirts of the town of via square

traveling to where they think they might still be ukrainian soldiers hiding walking through the fields that we're following the end to government troops now in this part of the town is supposed to be the use of the ukrainian army but they're coming just to check that there's nothing no soldiers hiding here no mines on the ground so. now if you like and can. still hear us. right next to us. we're just. down. ok you heard that explosion. there was. this explosions going to appear. within this demographic and. you can hear some of the firing coming from behind us and some of. in front of the

press. since all these anti-government fighters have actually been winning bagged most of the citizens here in eastern ukraine what do you find there. we saw an armored vehicle belonging to the ukrainian military entering our territory we did not invite them here if we want to live freely on our own land. there are no russians here and there never were there is only the local population who rose up to defend themselves do you see any russians or chechens here. but i know way back i say it was a successful mission and it's just a matter of time before not only to be entire town of the advice going to surrounding areas but indeed the whole of eastern ukraine is in the hands what is the hot seat on the outskirts of ill advised. well according to the un refugee agency more than seven hundred thousand ukrainians fled to russia with one hundred

twenty thousand displayed displaced inside ukraine itself our political commentator alexander mccord is joins me live now alexander thanks very much for joining us here on r.t. international i suppose with figures like that something had to give well yes and one wonders why even much earlier there was an agreement by the been many. on the seventeenth of april on the second of july but instead the war went on and so clearly it was the poroshenko who decided to give a military solution now that he's losing finally come around and accept the need. and what you put it down to the timing of this is down to the anti-government forces making gains in recent days are getting there is any doubt about that. many military units ukrainian military units all surrounded mariupol it so it was about

is about all i understand. and mr poroshenko went to the european summit of them days ago and the european still think categorically that there is not going to be any military assistance provided to the ukraine to turn this thing round militarily so that left and left him with no practical option but to seek a cease fire which he rejected two months ago. well do you believe that this one will last or has said it is a permanent ceasefire well that remains i'm afraid to be seen firstly it's important to say that this is a ceasefire that mr poroshenko is trying to negotiate with mr who the people who are actually fighting in the ukraine are as we know the local people in the eastern ukraine they will have to be included in these negotiations the other problem is that on the other side there are all sorts of the willing here who are not going to

be happy with any kind of negotiation involving the eastern ukrainians so we're going to have to see this is a very difficult situation and i'm far from convinced that this is the problems have been resolved there's much still to do do you think therefore that this is a genuine attempt to open dialogue or do you think this is a chance for ukrainian kier forces to regroup i think it's a bit of both actually i think the do was to regroup their forces and extra to get them through a very difficult situation but i'm afraid i think that the military realities on the ground make this almost inevitable that there will have to be a cease fire now and i'm hoping it will be permanent but we will have and how is this going to be perceived by the rest of the the rest of the world nato of course their summit begins in the u.k. on fer's day how is this going to be perceived do you think by west. government i

think with ace measure of relief actually from their point of view this is turning rapidly into a bar and i suspect that now the priority is to trying to save whatever is possible to save all the government they have been supporting too strongly here if the war had gone on and we heard the europeans and the american say that there would not be any military involvement by their side in this conflict then at some point that that we ultimately would have been itself in a very precarious position so i think they will support the ceasefire but whether of course it sticks is another matter or the rhetoric and the narrative from western governments in recent months and weeks has been that of escalating sanctions and threats to russia will that now change do you think. i think that there has already been a great deal of opposition within the european union to the sanctions policy and

checks the solver acts the hunger variants of spoken out openly against it and i'm talking about the governments now not just people a lot of business opinion against strong running both strongly against sanctions if there is a cease fire in place before the the e.u. summit i'm crying. then i think it will be much more difficult to impose sanctions but we'll just have to see sanctions is the only tool that the west seems to have in this matter even though it is a tool that has not worked but there are some people who will probably want to argue that the pressure should be maintained we will see i think it will be very difficult to get sanctions through the european union. are legs on the record us thank you very much for your time political commentator alexander mccall is joining

us here on r.t. international. now back to our breaking news this hour here on r.t. international president putin spokesperson has reiterated his stress that the russian and ukrainian presidents have not agreed on the ceasefire that's because russia is not part of the conflict it follows the announcement earlier from kiev that apartment ceasefire in eastern ukraine had been agreed it's believed the two leaders discussed the issue over the phone so proclaimed republics in the east say that they are ready to sit down and open dialogue if kiev stops its military assault the so-called anti terror operation ukraine's military crackdown on the east of ukraine has been continuing now for five months and this is a tweet a confirmation tweet from ukrainian president petro poroshenko confirming the truce he says as a result of my phone conversation with russian president vladimir putin that we have reached an agreement on a permanent cease fire. now other

breaking news this hour on r.t. international an international monitoring mission in europe the o.s.c. has demanded an investigation into the death of russian photographer andre stan and the thirty three year old photo journalist has been confirmed dead after results of forensic tests were released he'd been missing in eastern ukraine for almost a month has the details while hopes for injuries safe return from ukraine have been shattered after a genetic test has proven conclusively that the remains that have been found in south eastern ukraine indeed do belong to andre stand in it was a photo journalist working for ria novosti which is part of christie's or the news corp the head of which has made this statement on the death of andre with follow gundry's fate and demanded that international organizations freed him where thankful to everyone in russia and their broad for your activities and for

your support. unfortunately when we were trying to do everything possible and even impossible for his freedom and already no longer with us now those words of brad is a different and by a massive show of support that was began right here i dare say a subordinate headquarters where i'm standing was spread all over the country even all over the world not just journalists but people in other countries including organizations that for protection of journalists worldwide have issued their support they had been calling on andries release because it was assumed that andrea was detained by ukrainian forces as they have previously done to a number of russian journalists or journalists working for russian news outlets including our team but no information was provided by kit that would specify exactly what was happening to andre or where she was stone insert friends sternal is with and working with them they have discovered andris card.