for a day, 6 of the violence in ukraine civilians caught between the front lines. we report from the war, torn done yet the people's republic where homes and lives are being lost every day . a gym with over half a 1000000 people have fled ukraine since last week. they've been seeking refuge in neighboring countries, such as poland, moldova romania, and russia,

and positions voiced with a plan to meet again, russian and ukrainian delegations, conclude their 1st round of negotiations in bella roots near the ukrainian border. also the pledges support for ukraine, including ammunition, medical supplies, and weapons, even traditionally neutral switzerland has joined european sanctions against russia . ah hello and welcome to our t international, special coverage of the war and ukraine. i'm your host donald quarter. russia's top diplomat has addressed un officials on nuclear disarmament and human rights with a focus on the conflict in ukraine. he spoke remotely because several european countries blocked his plane from flying to geneva. when it cross live right now to

artillio a tranquil, so ellia, thanks for joining us. there were 2 speeches in 2 hours. what were lab, rob's major points, and what's the specific context? don, hey there indeed, there have been 2 statements made by the russian top diplomat. and in the 1st one he focused on nuclear non proliferation. there was a very strong message from mr. lab rav 1st of all, it was intended for us officials. and actually, i can tell you that some of it was very surprising because the demands that he was making and they're not really unprecedented, but especially given the times when they're being made. that's really something to watch out for the method from russia is strong. moscow doesn't want any us nuclear weapons in the countries that don't possess nuclear arms. and besides this,

the russian side, once the entire infrastructure, which could be used for the deployment of nukes in europe, to be dismantled once take a listen to what exactly the russian foreign minister said about that that must be pretty much the, it's on acceptable for research in violation of basic provisions of the treaty on the non proliferation of nuclear weapons, there are still us nuclear weapons on the territory of several european countries. the misguided practice of joint nuclear emissions involving non nuclear nato states is continuing such missions, develop scenarios for using nuclear weapons against russia. it's time to return us nuclear weapons to their origin, country, and dismantle all the infrastructure for those weapons in europe. now as in the past, we believe there would be no winner in a nuclear war, and it must never start. you can think of it as yes. we can also bear in mind that these statement from the russian top diplomat come

a couple of days after the washing president vladimir potent ordered that the russians strategic turns forces be put on high alert. as a result of the deployment of more nato troops forces and hardware in a east europe after the situation and ukraine escalated heavily. now the 2nd statement by sir de la rob was much longer and it was about ukraine. it was pretty much an address and explanation to the entire spectrum of western media organizations that are covering the conflict in east ukraine. and also perhaps it could be treated as a response to many european, many american officials who have been blaming russia for starting this war. as they are calling it in ukraine, sir, you live are all kept on reminding again,

perhaps these media organizations, the journalist, the officials of what's been going on in the country after what russia is calling a and an acceptable coo and 2014. when the government of victor yacht and cole, which was pretty much destroyed by the nationalist mobs in care of and by a wave of protests that were heavily supported by american officials and european officials as well. foreign minister lab, rob reminded of how the rights of the russian speaking population in the eastern, in the southern parts of ukraine have been constantly violated how, because of some element of the legislation in ukraine. they weren't able to receive cation in russian or use the russian language when working,

when somehow dealing with the paperwork and so on and so forth, according to the washing slide. these kind of actions have been a massive violation of international law. and that is the reason why russia was forced to act. but of course, perhaps the most important reason for it was what moscow keeps calling genocide against the russian speaking population. in the republics of donnie and logan's, we remember how, according to the un, more than 13000 people died in the conflict after key began a military operation against the pro russian republics that proclaimed independence as a result of that military coup in kiev when president, yada co which was ousted parties only portraying ca. thanks a lot for bringing us. those updates now, fighting continues across ukraine as the russian military operation enters day 6.

but he was posted on social media show cars destroyed in clear across the capitals, nearly empty streets. this comes amid warnings of escalating crime in the city. as the government is said to be handing out guns to civilians and released prisoners. the russian military is calling on residence to leave key of the a designated highway heading south west. you can also see on your screen now smoke over ukraine's 2nd largest city of hark, of with a massive explosion reportedly caused by a projectile in the city center near the regional administration. building local authorities are blaming russia. but media report say, there were not even russian forces in the area from which the projectile reportedly came from, were waiting for comments from russian military officials about this. here's other footage from the city and a warning. you may find it disturbing. explosions were reported in the city also on monday with locals filming huge plumes of smoke. amid what they described as

ongoing battles. russia has denied responsibility saying it is not targeting civilians. and instead claiming that ukraine is positioning forces in apartment buildings to use civilians as human shields, he has on the other hand, strongly denied that accusation. now you can see this map. it shows what's happening with the red dots highlighting the major cities where fighting is being reported. russia's defense ministry says the guns people's militia has advanced against the ukrainian army by another 3 kilometers beyond mondays from blind. as for the done yet, forces they have reportedly advanced 16 kilometers. people from various parts of ukraine are fleeing the ongoing conflict. almost 400000 have sought refuge, a neighboring poland. these images show ukrainians at a railway station in the western city of love of hoping to get on the train across the border. according to the un, more than half

a 1000000 people have fled ukraine since last week, seeking refuge in neighboring countries including romania, moldova, and russia. other countries in europe have also announced their willingness to help the refugees with charities, collecting donations for humanitarian aid. all the while kiev accuses moscow of aggression and says around 5000 russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in recent days with dozens of russian plains and helicopter shot down and about 200 tanks destroyed. moscow, on the other hand, refutes these claims while not disclosing concrete figures. it says it's been making major advances against ukrainian military. now, all members of the o. s. c e, special monetary mission in the done yes. people's republic are on their way out. the mission used to monitor and report violations of a cease fire agreement between kia and militia forces. but on sunday, the mission said that it would relocate staff due to deteriorating security

conditions. now here's the latest footage from vignettes showing the aftermath of shelling civilians are trying to survive in this conflict zone. and cities and towns are caught between the front lines with battles. continuing to re, john residents are terrified with people's lives at homes lost every day. amid the conflict, some ukrainian soldiers have decided to lay down their arms. they are now in special shelters. in lou ganske ortiz, maria finance, she went there to better understand if it's possible for the warring sides to establish peace. we cannot, however, fully verify the statements of these people because they were taken in captivity. just days ago, these military men from ukraine's army were on the front line, fighting hard against the forces of logan's republic to day they are hosted by their yesterday's enemy. we came here when they were just served lunch. the head of the la guns republic promised all of them and others, if there are more,

will be sent home as soon as war is over. and before that kept here and treated well. here in la guns, they eat the same food as local military. they sleep on the same beds and linen in similar dorms, and apparently that is the treatment. they didn't really expect lucindas with whom we had expected worse treatment. but also, it is a rare situation that we, the fighting sites had a dialogue. now those up there should sit and talk to you soon. jessica and the hood who is up, they are treated well and in good condition, some former, the men have quite a busy shadow. and many visitors, father, redeemer himself, spent 113 days in ukraine's capture back in 2014. and after speaking to those people, he says it's so different from his experience about her with comfortable you up with the little they took me to the prison and i lost 45 kilos digits. so compose

what i knew the cause. of course you would know they're like prodigal sons, let them come back to their family. they can be useful. born back home, these ukranian service members will most likely be treated as traitors. but they said differently. i'm believe by that decision. they say lives. but the so only look, clickable is the, shall i was the head of the group and i made the decision to give up. i gave that order to 14 people to save my life, but most importantly to save. there's a is there. so young yo duke. good, i can't call for my comrades fighting out there to lay down their arms. but i believe those who armed them should do so surprising, as it may be here. conciliation between previously bitter enemies seems not only possible but to real and will be seen as an example to those who hope that when the current conflict ends, the 2 sides can finally find common ground. reef in ocean r t from logan square public. the 1st round of negotiations between russia and

ukraine has concluded and bell roofs near the ukrainian border with both sides, saying they've presented their positions. ortiz constantine ross, called reports from the area. well, at this point, the main outcome of these talks is that the, these talks to place and the 2 sides agreed to continue dialogue. it's not much, but in something that creates room for cautious optimism. there's going to be a 2nd round, maybe it'll bear more results, but for now it's a wait and see approach. this is what the cranium president vladimir, alaska said about the rep top talks and valve covers nothing my article. while we do not have the result, we would like to see russia has stated its position and we have voiced counter points to end the war in the west, a department that it would discuss the 1st round of talks with the cranium. now, the members of the russian delegation were also cautious talking about the outcome of the meeting. we had, the russian delegation reported to the latter my opponent yesterday, and the russian president already gave instructions so that the necessary war can

be done before around 2. let's listen to what the russian delegation sat about, the talks. social workers are going should is free to go with negotiations with the ukrainian side have concluded they lasted around 5 hours. during the talks, we went through all the details on the agenda, found some points on which common positions can be foreseen, and most importantly agreed to continue the negotiation process. the next meeting will take place in the coming days on the polen, bella rouge border was a 2 size negotiate to military situation on the ground remains tense. key f like uses russian troops of shelling residential areas in cities across ukraine. moscow says it's specifically instructed, it's military not to do so. russia's minutes, rev defense blamed key for using civilians as a human shield by placing military hardware next to residential buildings. provoking the russian military to respond and hit these areas. at the same time, the shipment of legal weapons, since a crane has reached alarming rates,

you and nato countries, and in thousands of anti tank and air systems as well as ammunition. there is also been a lot of talks about providing keys with fighter jets ukraine's ministry of defense . and it's expecting up to $75.00 jazz from bulgaria, poland, and slovakia bulgaria has already denied, but poland seems to be on board and could even provide its airfields for ukraine in pilots. grades authorities really use prisoners with a military background and handout weapons to civilians without any supervision. this had already resulted in the spike. a street violence and looting. according to russia's ministry of defense, gave of course, put the blame on russia for 4 days. but nonetheless, moscow thinks that sending more and more military equipment into crane in this situation is reckless. nato secretary general has just finished his joint news press conference with poland, president of the joint news conference, rather thanking poland which neighbors, ukraine, for support for ukrainian refugees. he also condemned russia's actions in the

conflict, but cautioned that nato was not looking to fight russia. president the house shattered peace in europe, allies condemn the unjustified and brutal invasion of ukraine. the russian assault is totally unacceptable. unacceptable. nate, there is a defensive alliance. we do not seek conflict with the rush. rush almost immediately stop the war, pull out all its forces from ukraine, and engage in good faith in diplomatic efforts. the world stands with ukraine in calling for peace. e u. member states are sending weapons to ukraine along with ammunition and medical supplies. as the european union has added another 26 people to its sanction list imposed against russia over the conflict. meanwhile, a decree signed by ukraine's president to allow foreigners to enter the country

without a visa to fight for ukraine against russia has come into force. correspondent peter oliver reports for the european union has stepped up deliveries of lethal aid to ukraine following russia's invasion of the country. the high representative for foreign affairs of the european union. yo separate al says that old member states need to step up and provide ukraine with what it needs in this situation or so for further training. and our forces is crucial. crucial. they need munitions, your new healthcare material. they need to defensive purpose arms of any kind and we are going to provide them together by with the member to state germany provided its 1st delivery of weapons on monday that marked a major policy shift for berlin. they'd previously said that they wouldn't be

sending weapons into the conflict. the arrival of russian troops in ukraine. well, that changed everything as far as berlin was concerned. denmark has also sent deliveries as well. 2700 anti tank weapons have been sent from copenhagen, sweden as well, have been sending weapons neutral, sweden, it's worth pointing out. 5000 anti tank weapons coming from them, as well as field russians. helmets and body armor of russia has been extremely critical of the actions over year when it comes to these deliveries. now, the masks are off, the e is revealing its true self with the decision on february 27th to send lethal weapons to ukraine. this means the end of european integration as a passive his project to bring europe ian nations together after world war 2. the e. u has definitely taken the side of the cranium regime, which has committed genocide against part of its own population therapy in union

has also expanded its sanctions list against a number of russian figures. these include the ceo's of energy companies and airlines, as well as government officials, including the kremlin spokesperson social media giants, including youtube, tick, tock, and mehta. have announced today that they plan to restrict access to russian media outlets r. t and sport nick in the european union. we have received requests from a number of governments and the e. u to take further steps in relation to rush and state control media. given the exceptional nature of the current situation, we will be restricting access to our tea and sputnik across the e u at this time. now if you're wondering what that means, r t and sputnik will no longer be accessible on the platforms within the european union. twitter has also said it would put warnings on tweets sharing, links to our tea, and take steps to significantly reduce the circulation of that content. microsoft

has also taken measures in recent days to restrict our t from making money from ads on its platforms. on line platforms have been under severe pressure to shut down our t following an announcement by the e. u commissions president to ban r t from broadcasting in the u back taking a crucial estate. jordan off the tap for the russians. information manipulation in you to lay banning russia today. and sputnik from broadcasting ended up in union now polish and estonian regulators have already banned russian television broadcasters. while the u. k. is reviewing its policy regarding r t. now we're to cross live now to john lochlund, lecturer in political science and history at ss the catholic institute of the von day in western france. thanks a lot for joining. joining us. the 1st question i have is basically about these

social media companies, you tube and tick tock, their blocking r t and sputnik on their platforms in the you. what do you think about that? well, i think it's in the continuation of tendencies that we observed in europe, and indeed in the united states long before this war in ukraine. everyone remembers how president trump's twitter account was suspended. that must be well over a year ago by now. how facebook has been censoring corona virus information and shutting down accounts because if they question the efficacy of vaccines, this is the ukraine war has not changed and i think it is only aggravated totalitarian tendencies, which were already visible before the war. and ukraine was on anyone's minds as a resident of the european union and as a european citizen, i am of course,

horrified to see that the european union is taking against ostensibly against russia. a number of measures which in fact are directed against european citizens and which will affect european citizens of adversely. i don't think any russian citizen or even the russian state will suffer from r t being taken off the air. the people who will suffer our people who want to go and look at our tea. we want to watch it who want to try and find out information from the russian side, particularly of course, in situations of conflict. so it's a grotesque abuse of, of liberties and a we, it's part of a wider attack on fundamental liberties. liberties which, the west says it's defending in this war. they include this attack includes the sanctions which are now being directed against people who have property in western europe in london. for example, people's property apparently is going to be seized, their houses and so on. even though property rights are the absolute foundation,

stone of the liberal order, every single american, every single british political philosopher knows the property rights are on the basis of, of liberal, of the liberal rule of law. and if those go, ostensibly, 1st for russian, rationale gods, then who's going to be next? while john, other media outlets have also been accused of bias in the past, even right now, why do you think r t is being singled out? when you're done right? they are, i mean, i would like to accuse some western media outlier outlets of this information. i'm sure your view as remember how the western media, particularly the british media and the american media, announced the battle of kia from day 2 of the military operations. well, it wasn't a battle of key f on day 2. that was a massive piece of disinformation. it was as bad as randolph hearst saying, you give me the photographs and all you know,

you provide the photographs and all provide the wall. so they've, so they've chosen r t and sputnik because they are trying to find as many things as possible to do in what is now a completely a symmetrical war between on the one hand, the military might of the russian army and ukraine and on the other hand, the alleged economic might of the west against russia. it's an economic war. blue no. lamar, the french foreign minister, used that very expression. it's an economic war that is being waged now on russia. and we'll see if it succeeds. i'm skeptical, but maybe it'll succeed. maybe russia will be brought to its knees, but i would remark before we know the outcome that this economic war is directed, of course, against the civilian population of russia, as sanctions and so on are designed to inflict pain on ordinary russians. whereas

a military operation, one hopes is directed not against civilian targets, but against only military ones. well, as you said, of course, there's a lot of people in the world to see the western media itself is biased as well in connection to that. what do you think about vladimir vladimir putin's recent statement where he called the western empire of lies? what do you think about that? i think it's dead right? and we've been living it under this empire of lies up for a long time. so it's a very good phrase he's, i imagine he's trying to get one back on rob on ronald reagan who famously called the soviet union the evil empire. back in the 1980s are we suffer? and we have suffered in western europe in america for a long time now for 10 or 20 years under an empire of lies. or, of course, that is broken down to little with social media and with, you know,

news outlets like r t, which offer obviously a different point of view. and that's why the western powers are scrambling to close down these media outlets. the social networks and so on. because they've, they can see, and they've seen this now for years. they're just using the crisis, this russia crisis to do what they've been trying to do for years. they've been trying to get control of the social media networks for ages. both by legal and by covert means and you know, you never let a good crisis go to waste that sir. maxim of politics and that's what's happening now. well, john laughlin, political science and history lecturer. thanks a lot for joining us on the program. thank you. sanctions have taken a heavy toll on russia's economy, causing the national rouble currency to plummet and stirring panic throughout the country with russians queuing up at cash machines to withdraw their savings. people are worried that the new western sanctions will trigger cash sorta agents and

disrupt payments at some russian banks are to be cut off from the swift global payment system and the central bank assets to be frozen. the e. u has also banned russian flights into its territory, exacerbating concerns about russia becoming isolated. moscow central bank has stepped in to fight the flight of foreign capital abroad. the more on that years are chief the 1st on us. first and foremost, latimer putting signed a document according to which russian companies and russian nationals is no longer allowed to send the dollars and store them deposit them in for an account. so basically all foreign currency like dollars, for example, they have that has to stay in the side country and within the russian economy. on top of that, russian tax residents like companies that will receive some of the income in dollars, they will have to sell 80 percent of that income and exchange it for roubles. this

is done, of course, to support the russian national currency, which it was again, it was falling quite heavily. it, su, su, surpassed the $100.00 rubles per dollar mark. so it was worth less than a cents. in fact, one russian rouble was worth less than a cent, but following these measures, following the announcement of these measures, a kind of back tracked and recovered at least a little bit. and now it is. well, it's still, the official raid basically is not. it is, is not reaching is just below, just under a 100 rubles per dollar on top of that, the bank of russia has higher massively, the key rates. so now it's 20 percent and that's a, that's more than double compared to what it was yesterday. so that is done, of course, also to support to support the national currency. now, of course, some russian, some big russian, you know, businessman, they have criticized this because of course, with this with the key rates. so high money is so expensive. borrowing money is so

expensive for the companies. well, but, well, the russian government says it has to be done. but again, unfortunately for the russian economy, the west is saying that, well, this could be that, that there's more where that came from. so they might impose more sanctions and they have this intention stick around for more of our to international special coverage of the conflict in ukraine and just about 30 minutes bye for now. ah ah ah, ah, when else seemed wrong? when i just don't hold any world yet to see out is the

because the advocate and engagement equals the trail, when so many find themselves will depart. we choose to look for common ground i oh gosh, nobody will actually this is it, was she actually we're not a wiley in the city on their point 2, this is latortia laura that the she cus him. yeah. i did if school or g of q 3

a i z 8 you she's leeway or salad saw.