to syria. so obviously. breaking news here on our to ukraine backtrack from declaring a permanent cease fire in the u.s. instead announcing steps needed for reaching a truce earlier president poroshenko announced a complete end to the fighting in restive regions after a phone conversation with russian president vladimir putin. let's go back to the breaking news here in r.t. ukrainian president poroshenko backtracks on his initial announcement of

a full scale ceasefire in the country's east well earlier on his twitter the craning leader announced a permanent truce in the region kiev says it follows a phone conversation with ross and present president vladimir putin in which they discussed further steps to end the bloodshed in the region however vladimir putin's press secretary stress is no agreement between moscow and kiev has been reached because russia is not a party in this conflict the truce must be discussed with the self-proclaimed republics they in turn say they are ready to settle down the conflict if kiev indeed stops it says sold meanwhile u.s. president barack obama has said it's too early to judge what the truce will mean ukraine's military crackdown on antigovernment fighters has been ongoing for five months the thought of. and here is a tweet from ukrainian president at least how it used to look before you crying changed its stance confirming the truce in the east of ukraine petro poroshenko

says as a result of my phone conversation with the brushing president we reached an agreement on a permanent cease fire. will be joining us a bit later on to get more reaction on this well political analysts against iraq and is here with more on the truce. we are hearing now that kiev is backtracking what you make of this. while this comes as no surprise because the plan to them is moving so widely for a while inside to another and as you know president bush. is very limited in his decisions this obviously all powerful party of war in ukraine and he has also to take into consideration their position so probably this but directing your affair into is the result of that. balancing act which president carter

center is trying to perform but we have still yet to receive to what extent he would be. to go ahead with his agenda. i mean on the face of it i know he's backtracking but on the face of it he still looks it still looks like that he's sort of looking forward but haps trying to get some sort of piece of solution to this so we shouldn't be too dismissive but of course the anti-government forces do involve the right sector the national guard what sort of authority does he have over those groups i mean how is it possible to control what they do. oh wow those who are considered to be a regular ukrainian forces comprise not only if you're a regular ukrainian army but but they had a hands off private time is which are sponsored by only goddess like. call of moist

people is the god of the appropriate roast region and it seems that the present production because the very limited. were in a limited influence and then in addition to the out also it is an open secret that ukrainian prime minister saying yes and york is also considered to be one of the kooks. that's why it seems that all in all even if president bush. was jailed in his initiative in his initiative to. try to find out the formula for cease fire. miracle would not happen overnight and obviously we will see many sides trying to jeopardize the you. know we've been hearing from president obama over the last few minutes two full nights on it are you surprised by his cool response because he said obviously they need more time to digest the.

well i think lisa's lisa's. past statement restraints the statement also has its logic because. president obama has found himself in quite a difficult situation. ukraine area looks like at deadlock and every day or for ukrainian conflict can hardly boost the he has to emerge and popularity because it seems that he has no control and no no leverage no influence of that that's why probably he simply doesn't know what to say and to act in such a situation if a cease fire is the chief obviously all high p.t.'s but if it is the chief do you think this is an opportunity for genuine pay still people who are cynical might suggest this is an opportunity for ukraine so you regroup. as a key question with and he says is what comes next and this is very important for president

poroshenko because if he really makes a high stakes on cease fire then ukrainians and their leading political forces would ask him where you able just to resolve the crisis in the interest of the whole ukraine and elise is also relevant to pro russian militia they also have to reinforce their positions after this is fired not in terms of only military capabilities but also to use this is why as an opportunity to go ahead with their agenda to negotiate spatial status of then yes and will gonski regions either within the ukraine or as they say as an independent states but as far as independence this is really a looks like a very remote possibility. in which you are very few people really believe. ok well thank you for your thoughts it was a stroke and. political analyst we can across to paula slayer i believe she is live

in the east of ukraine this story developing quickly paula we're hearing now that a bit of a backtrack from kiev this saying is not an announcement of a cease fire but they are putting forward proposals for a truce what do you make of this. when i continue from gauging the reaction here in eastern ukraine there's a lot of questions that people are asking we have heard from the self defense leaders who say that they know nothing about the announcement of a permanent ceasefire they say that they doubt that kid will stop with its operation but they do say that they are willing to reach a political agreement if indeed kiev gives assurances and is sincere about stopping at this military offensive that has been on the go for the better part of five months we have just heard from the vice president of the din it's from the public who says that the ukrainian president poroshenko did not discuss any kind of ceasefire with the leaders of the donbass region we're also hearing from an army

battalion general who says that they would be willing to obey an order for a cease fire if indeed the order is given but as of yet no order has been given and i've been talking to people here on the ground and i continue that the reaction is one of suspicion many people are telling me that they simply do not believe the words that are coming out of kiev there are some who say that the ukrainian president is testing the ground putting out feelers if you like and that they are not prepared to believe that the military offensive is indeed to be halted and till they get confirmation of from moscow there are others who say that this might be an attempt to get the anti-government fighters to lay down their weapons to stop with their offensive so that the ukrainian military can make a great offensive and take back land that the anti-government fighters have been winning because essentially they're the ones who've been pushing forward in the past few days and then is even harsher reaction with people saying simply that they don't believe. and that all of this is just an attempt to stop the anti-government

wins and that the fighters should continue fighting until they push all the way forward just a reminder we don't yet know if talks are going to resume between the two sides we have heard from a kremlin spokesperson who says that there was no permanent cease fire that was agreed to between the ukrainian and russian president and this is because russia is not in a position to agree to a cease fire because russia was not a party to this conflict russia does not interfere with what is happening inside ukraine at the same time he did make the point that the two leaders when they spoke earlier via telephone pretty much agreed though on the steps that need to be taken for a permanent ceasefire to be reached at the initial statement from tears did state that president bush nkomo putin had spoken via telephone and that they were on the same page in terms of how a ceasefire should be negotiated there is still fighting here on the ground internet so that is why a lot of people here are suspicious about the statements coming out of kiev we know

that the anti-government fighters are continuing with their offensive it is worth mentioning though that there was an attempt to earlier in the week with direct talks held between the representatives of the lugansk and in its republic and the authorities in kiev to try and get a breakthrough in talks the question still is whether in fact this is the breakthrough that everyone has been waiting for. ok thank you paula. paula slee in the east of ukraine for us all in all it's been almost five months since launched its military crackdown in the east since then it has officially confirmed the deaths of almost eight hundred government troops and more than two and a half thousand wounded but kiev is being accused of a massive cover up anti-government forces say up to fourteen thousand military servicemen have been killed and injured and that casualties are being under reported on purpose the deadly toll pushed many ukrainian mothers and soldiers to confront the commanders over the high human cost of the conflict. it

was b.s. right we didn't have a gun i mean this was will be a more when you was a chance right now doing it you know you're going. to see everybody. the women are forever here for you know what a from a broken wire bullshit to almost you want to prosper backwardness would probably the only response was you know was when i was sure i meant everybody because i was very much and i know you. don't mind yes i don't know i love. that i don't know what. you want to. know when. the jewel of all of the band of it all but. it's still there so i think that you were looking forward to doing this but it's that. well in the last few days alone

hundreds of government troops have reportedly being killed or taken prisoner near the town of in a vise in the dinette screeching entire battalion phantom cell surrounded during a counter attack by anti-government forces to the commanders of those units accused of abandoning them thanks. scott discussed the issue with political analyst alexander package and he believes kids recent the fates in the east pushed it to finally seek a peaceful solution. i think the key to this is the military success of the armed forces and gone bust i think without that i probably wouldn't have been ready for this but there's no i think that's the whole thing. if they had been able to successfully conduct their so-called anti-terrorist action. actually suppress the resistance that formed after the new government mr pollack here

this past winter i think you'd have been able to carry that through we probably wouldn't be talking about a peace plan today we've been talking about guerrilla warfare but i think this is the key do you think the king as has total control over all of the the forces in the ace i mean the national guard for example do you think that they'll be able to although they cease fire. i don't think they are total control i think ah some of the forces are under my words are very independent some forces are actually may be under control or let's say we influence or even outside forces perhaps in neighboring countries but it may be that it's in everyone's interest right now here and it's now wise for there to be reached a cease fire for them to consolidate because they are very much suffering by heavy losses use the last few days. so a recap of our breaking news here in r.t. ukrainian president poroshenko backtracked on his initial announcement of

a full ceasefire in the country's east earlier on his twitter the ukrainian leader announced a permanent truce in the region kiev says it follows a phone conversation with russian president vladimir putin in which they discussed further steps to end the bloodshed in the region however that imitations press secretary stresses no green between moscow and kiev has been reached because russia is not a party in this conflict the trieste must be discussed with the self-proclaimed the publics they in turn say they are ready to settle down the conflict if kiev indeed stops its assault meanwhile u.s. president barack obama has said it's too early to judge what the truth will mean ukraine's military crackdown on anti-government fighters has been going on for five months now. but here is the traits from the ukrainian president at least how it used to look before ukraine changed its stance confirming the trees need to be trained petro poroshenko says as a result of my phone conversation with the russian president we reached an agreement on a permanent cease fire. well we got some news just

in the ukrainian government says it's going to drop its non aligned status and is looking towards joining nato i would join us live now by peter oliver. peter let's just talk briefly about this backtracking from kiev even though they've said a full truce is not something now that they're going to put in place they are looking forward or trying to put forward steps to try and encourage peace in the future but it is a decision isn't it to move away from violence. well what we are seeing right now with the latest announcement from the ukrainian government that they going to to get rid of this nonaligned status is essentially they're trying to make the first steps towards towards joining nato with regards to that tweet from president pushing care the rewording of that tweet does seem that they are trying to come to some kind of peaceful solution so maybe some steps towards the first steps to a peaceful solution but at the same time the steps that they are taking is towards

joining nato now this was also something that was discussed in tallinn during a joint press conference between u.s. president barack obama and his stony and counterpart now the president of a stone here said with regards to a potential cease fire that well we hope it works out but it would be a lot of it in his opinion would depend on russia and because all he'd seen so far from russia had been aggression and that he would be continuing with a plan of restrictive measures against moscow he didn't mention sanctions by name but it's understood exactly what you mentioned there with regards to mr obama well he said it's so far we're through with the cease fire this was a little while ago now there has been developments since then at the time he said we've only seen reports of this there's nothing concrete so far but in his eyes what he'd seen so far from the russian side where there were over previous cease fires was that they were russia wasn't serious in the in the mind of barack obama

when it came to to backing up the cease fire as he did say that what he wanted to see what nato's preference was was to see a strong a productive and a co-operative russia but with regards to ukraine he spoke about potential peace and rebuilding in the country he cited the the baltic states as an example of economic growth but he did say for ukraine to try and follow that type of that type of of example was going to be a very long and a very tough road to hold. he said this as far as ukraine's relationship with nato where. and it as it stood ukraine was not a member of nato but it did have the backing of nato with regards of words and with regards of actions and he said that from his conversations with president bush that ukrainian side the side in kiev anyway seem to understand that so this is something that is developing continuously the relationship of the ukraine wants to implement the ceasefire whether they want to join nato it does seem like they're trying the

government at least are trying to take those first steps it's going to be something that continues for a while yet. ok thanks to this artie's peter all of a live there from germany or raising money to bolster a military presence in eastern europe in the wake of the ukrainian crisis this is one of the key issues to be discussed during an upcoming nato summit in the u.k. over the weekend hundreds of peace protesters hit the streets of new port and cardiff in wales they want less money spent on war and nuclear weapons so could nato afford to boost defense infrastructure across eastern europe will currently the twenty eight member states spend as much as one trillion dollars a year maintaining what the alliance has already has and that means the organization alone gets more military funding than the rest of the world put together washington is currently footing most of the bill with just over a quarter of nato is budget made up by other members those in the alliance are

supposed to contribute two percent of their g.d.p. each year but not everyone does in fact more than eighty five percent of countries on the list are willing or simply not ready to provide that much cash while peace peace activists lido banda thinks the timing of the summit is well picked. and it's not by accident so that's really unfortunate to meet the standard will be the question of the times projects which was difficult to sell but it doesn't feel like now with the price of things the stepping up of the prices in this argument. that say the western military complex to say look we need to stretch it it's for our security it's very important. well the nato summit will begin on thursday and r.t. will be following events that. the north atlantic treaty organization arm or simply cannot hold.

i would like to invite the secretary general as well as the presidents of albania croatia to join me here you have nato roadmap for the next ten years. let's go back to our breaking news here in r.t. ukrainian president petro poroshenko has backtracked on his initial announcement of a full ceasefire in the country's east instead steps toward reaching a truce will be discussed that's his latest line ukrainian leader how dare you announce on twitter that a permanent truce in the region was imminent the president's official website recently amended the information dropping the word permanent. bakiyev says the initiative follows a phone conversation with russian president vladimir putin in which they discussed further steps to end the bloodshed in the region however putin's press secretary stresses that no agreement between moscow and kiev was breached because russia is

not a party in this conflict instead the truce must be discussed with the self-proclaimed republics they in turn say they are ready to end the conflict if kiev stops its assault meanwhile u.s. president barack obama has said it's too early to judge what the truce will mean ukraine's military crackdown on anti-government fighters has been going on for another five months now it's. well john laughland who's written extensively on international affairs is here to discuss the recent developments with us thanks very much for coming on to the program now the initial statement from kiev said a permanent ceasefire but it's now backtracked somewhat on this why do you think that is. i think. this flip flopping around shows the extreme inconsistency i would say dangerous inconsistency on the part of president poroshenko and the gear of government after all let's not

forget that only a couple of days ago president poroshenko and the care of regime told us that ukraine had been invaded by a thousand russian soldiers that a tank battalion had been across the ukrainian frontier and that ukraine and russia were there for war and this phrase at war. ball with russia at war with europe was picked up by a number of leading european politicians including the president of lithuania it now turns out that president poroshenko had a phone conversation with president putin as just as he had a perfect record deal meeting with him in minsk a few days ago and that they have agreed on measures to introduce peace me either way this is not serious you know where we're at one hundred years after the first world war can you imagine president point saying in january nine hundred fifteen that he had rung up or the german emperor and found ways to resolve the crisis this shows that the original allegation that russia had invaded and that russia was at

war with ukraine was not true and that's why i'm very skeptical about this latest declaration as well the ukrainian president clearly is not a very serious or reliable person ok let's talk about this latest statement he did say that he wants to put forward steps to move towards a truce i mean that in itself is positive isn't it. it could be positive and of course i hope as i'm sure many of your viewers do that it is indeed serious on the other hand let's never forget the context you've just said in your report that tomorrow the nato summit starts in wales it could very easily be an attempt to present himself poroshenko as the peacemaker and president putin as the woman to go after all in the tweets even in its amended version it says that after a conversation with president putin i have decided to declare a truce and we have agreed on major ways to introduce peace well as you know and as

i think you just said the kremlin immediately replied that russia is not a party to the conflict so even the tweet itself continues with the kiev regimes obsession of presenting this civil conflict in ukraine as a war with russia and for as long as kiev continues to do that as long as it continues to claim that everything that happens in ukraine is russia's fault and not ukraine's fault i don't really see any serious prospect of there being a middle east at all john if there is no ceasefire and what sort of position is kiev in to continue the fighting because they have been suffering their forces have been suffering heavy losses recently. well that is in a sense the as it were optimistic reading of this tweet and of this announcement. i must say it's completely cancelled anyway by the announcement that ukraine is going to seek nato membership because if assad. the european union was controversial

joining nato is infinitely more controversial and that will throw oil on the flames but yes your question is is absolutely right it could well be and this is the alternative more optimistic reading of the tweet and of the announcement that in fact president poroshenko and kiev have realized that the game is up they lost as we know the airport that after lugansk the ukrainian army has suffered heavy losses we don't have accurate figures but i'm expect you at r.t. probably have better information on this than i do but the figures are are high there are in the high hundreds if not thousands of ukrainian soldiers killed and it could simply be that he has run up a white flag in the face of the inevitable in a sense that is my hope because if indeed he realizes that he cannot win militarily his declaration from the very moment of his election was that he would settle this militarily. if he has now realized that that is not working then that could indeed

. be grounds for optimism but as i say you know there was a there was a ceasefire already in june that lasted a week we have to see how the facts on the ground evolve before we allow ourselves to get too excited sure ok thanks john thank you very much for your analysis on that that was john laughland who's written extensively on international affairs where 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's side of that there are more than one hundred thousand displaced inside the country itself many of their homes were destroyed by the army's indiscriminate artillery fire on the towns and cities in the east. well after months of an army offensive in eastern ukraine looks devastated schools hospitals apartment blocks and houses are either badly damaged or completely destroyed because these president what was the funding for

it he says that was even though there are suspicions that this is a very deadly serious that we very much you have a village should also be much the facility in the what was even video but. these aerial pictures show the remains of a village in the genetic region in eastern ukraine which was devastated by the military campaign over the summer at least fifteen hundred people used to live here now as you can see houses lay in ruins most residents have fled and this is a school building in vignette skits self which locals say was hit by mortar fire children aged six to sixteen were supposed to start their school year on monday but are unable to go to class until repairs are carried out and that could take months in fact many schools across the region remain shut due to extensive damage.

i'll be back in about thirty minutes time for the breaking developments and reaction on ukraine here and r.t. international next though behind the scenes here at r.t. in the latest episode of news take.

pew. i'm not a politician but we see that it is arab countries that sit on the world's greatest oil reserves and the west just cannot stay away from such tremendous wealth so in order to get their heads out of that oil the west employs what i was small cultural interest from. move. right from the scene. first trip to mars and i think future.