[000:00:00;00] ah ah, as it rushes military operation in ukraine enters, if the 7th day explosions have been reported, a tv tower and in the heart of region, it's heavy fighting on the other side of the conflict. horrific and destruction of homes in the aftermath of a battle in the dumbass region, where a village has come under the control of the guns militia and you politicians demand even harsher sanctions against russia. after the block decides to ban rti and cutting some russian banks out of the international transaction system. swift. but there are voices in the block opposing the establishment approach. be crane crisis. europe has tracked ukraine into these confrontation. it would be smarter to do so. so that ukraine could develop,

it can not be anyone outpost ah, broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow. this is art international. i'm john thomas. good. have you with us as we try and unravel the war in ukraine? now, russia's military operation in ukraine has entered its 7th day with heavy fighting and explosions reported in several different cities around the country. there is an ongoing battle reported in ukraine's eastern hock of region with russian troops attempting to advance. in this footage, you can see a massive explosion that happened late on tuesday in the city of true, gwyn, in the heart of region, with plumes of smoke filling the sky, it was reportedly observed near ukrainian air force base. there is no information as of now about the possible casualties. bit of morning,

these images are from war so they can be disturbing too many. this is another video from the region in ukraine's 2nd largest city. hark of the flashes revealing intense shelling during the night. we heard from a local woman hiding in a basement to hear her thoughts. mccord says it is all ready the 5th day we are here in the basement. we are worried very much and it is very scary. we have small children, elderly people, and frankly speaking, it is very frightening. it is a nightmare. and if you from the inside very strongly, this cannot be explained with words. rushes military has confirmed that had conducted a strike on a television tower in kiev and said that no residential buildings were damaged. it has also reported taking control of a regional center in the south of ukraine, but that has been denied by ukraine's defense ministry saying that the battle is still ongoing. ortiz, mary. felicia has more fresh defense ministry spokesperson major, general griffin. a shank of said that his son,

a big city on the black sea in the south, original capital, is now under total control of the russian forces. he also added that the civilian infrastructure hasn't been effected anyhow, hasn't been damaged and that the negotiations are currently on to go in with the local authorities on how to organize further cooperation in order to prevent any bad things happen on the ground with local residents to provide security and to meet their everyday needs. plus, he added that the armies of denounced and logan's republics advanced 60 and 75 kilometers. accordingly, since the beginning of the special military operation here with several towns and villages taken now under the control. and he also said that it was 1500 ukraine's military infrastructure objects have been damaged and that they'll continue striking military targets uniquely. and yes,

mr. coroner shank of also confirm that russia is behind, keeps tv tower. i tag hate said that it was done to prevent information attack against russia. let's take a listen. said it was a journal removable in order to end information attacks against russia, technological facilities of the ukrainian security service and the 72nd main center for psychological operations were hit by high precision weapons. and key of the broadcasting of a television tower has been disabled. the strike did not destroy residential buildings versus defense ministry war and about they said tak on tv tower, our as before, that call in a local residence and especially those living near relay stations to emitter, to leave their homes. and of course, clearly it's parked a panic in the ukrainian capital, and we started receiving many videos, especially from the cities railway station showing people trying to get on an creation train organized apparently by this horse while it's already packed,

and people riding with bags and the children and pads in a panic, although moscow has always been stressing it has no plans of occupying ukraine, and it is not going to targets residential areas, but it didn't prevent panic from spreading. the un estimates that these whole crisis could force around 4000000 people to plea ukraine. that's 10 percent of the country's population. and all that comes at the time when the world is waiting for the 2nd round of peace talks between ukraine and russia. president as a lens key, as spoke to american media from his bunker, saying that he is ready to me to lie demur. putting to remind you of the leaders of the 2 countries did not take physically part in the 1st round of negotiations of latimer potent and mr. zalinski did not meet. there were not on the ground. there were no that the table. maybe they st time is going to be different,

but mr. zalinski also said that the rock conditions that russia should accept to continued talking. you have to speak. first of all, everybody has to stop fighting. and to go back to that point from where it began. 56 days ago, we also hear from russia that moscow does not, she, ukraine is ready and willing to find balance solution to this crisis. but of course, let's wait and see what the piece talks will bring. and the very latest is that we hear that it could possibly be delayed, and we can see the 2nd round only at the end of this week. but we still have to verify this information. actually, all the information that's coming back to you. and in the loo, ganske and the netscape republic's residents are enduring, intense battles between the ukrainian army and local militia forces. if you take a look at this map, it shows what has been happening with the red dots highlighting the major cities

where fighting is being reported. russia's defense ministry claims that the lugens people's militia has advanced against the ukrainian army by another 3 kilometers beyond monday's front. line, as for done yet, sc forces they have reportedly advanced 16 kilometers beyond previous front lines. now, these are the latest images of a village that claimed to have come under the control of lugens can military forces with residents showing the aftermath of the fighting. you can see that homes and infrastructure have been destroyed. more footage from the area showing the don bask region amid apparent showing by the ukrainian army, a missile has destroyed cars and residential buildings in the done yet republics capital city there. the number of casualties is not yet known, but the city of done yet, sc mayor has warned that there may be victims under the rebel as rescuing operations or continuing this footage shows and abandoned

t 64 tank near the settlement of gus after ukrainian troops, apparently left the vehicle with all of its equipment and ammunition intact of evil, ganske people's militia has liberated the town of shuster in an offensive as ukrainian forces left the area on monday morning. the battle had been ongoing for almost 4 days residence there had to take shelter in basements during the fighting . while infrastructure was severely damaged, the lugens militia ledges that ukrainian forces unleashed most of the damage and destruction during their retreat. locals have been sharing their feelings about the situation with us. this shows that we have been waiting for our saviors. they have helped us a lot. the korean army were monsters. they wanted us to die. they wanted to shoot me in my legs. i was sitting on a bench and they approached me and told me that they'd seen me in la ganske. i said i hadn't been there for a long time, and it is really scary going through these all. we're glad that it's over well

local and we know who was showing where. when you crane shells are kindergartens, schools houses. what love can there be? thank god they get out of here. we should have happened a long time ago. how long were we supposed to bad is we have received exclusive video and what used to be a resort in the don bus on the sea of as off now appears completely destroyed. it was used as a base for ukraine's far right. as of battalion allegedly before being taken on monday by forces in the genetic people's republic. in a disturbing you turn, facebook will now let users express praise for a neo nazi ukrainian military group previously banned along with his walmack state and the ku klux klan. but meanwhile, facebook is banning r t in the you while promoting ukraine far right as of the talon in a bid to improve coverage of ukrainian forces. for the time being, we're making

a narrow exception for praise of the as a battalion strictly in the context of defending ukraine or in their role as part of the ukraine national god. the policy tweak though, still forbids any praise of violence, committed by the extremist group. the battalion emerged as an anti russian militia and joined ukrainian national guard in 2014. it is infamous for its neo nazi ideology and usage of associated symbols. the un has accused the as of battalion of committing torture and rape, and the u. s. has blocked military aid to the group due to its nazi ideology. ukraine's army has released a video showing a soldier from the neo nazi regiment, dipping bullets into pig fat during a threat to kill russian muslims. now we can't and won't show you this video because of it's offensive content, but we have requested a comment about it from facebook and we'll let you know if they reply. meanwhile, we talked to independent journalist, benjamin norton, who sees in facebook's decision and obvious adherence to the u. s. stance on the

conflict. i wrote an article and my independent news website, multiple arista about this tweet of the national guard. the official verified twitter account of the ukrainian national guard sharing a video of a neo nazi from a's off dipping bullets in big fat to kill chechen muslims from the russian army. i wrote an article about this completely factual as a journalist, and then i posted a screenshot of that article on instagram. and instagram, censored it, and said that it violated their content on, on promoting violence and hateful groups. but ironically, meadow which owns instagram says that it actually allows people that praise a's of the ultimate irony of this is that the european union is attacking russia, claiming that russia's authoritarian and it doesn't care about human rights and press freedom and freedom of speech. meanwhile, the european union, which claims to be democratic,

is violating the freedom of speech of its own citizens is violating the freedom of expression and the freedom of press by preventing its own citizens from having access to journalism. not only done by russians, there are a lot of europeans, there are people in spain, people in germany, people in france, and britain who work for r t. they're not russians. they are journalists who are doing journalistic work. amid the chaos in ukraine right now, there is an information vacuum about what has been happening and the positions of each side with conflicting reports about who is responsible for certain attacks. and our team is working very hard to distinguish what is happening independently. this footage is from tuesday morning from ukraine's 2nd largest city hot gov with plumes of smoke rising into the sky from a massive explosion, reportedly caused by a projectile that landed in the city center near the regional administration. building. local authorities have blamed russia, but media reports say that there were no russian forces in the area from which the

projectile had reportedly come. we are waiting for comments from the kremlin about this situation. we heard from military journalist and retired to colonel victor barnett's, who says that the ukrainian side is probably aware that the projectile came from their own forces. this is his opinion though simply because use that is just i got to talk to experts on the nature of the heart of bluff. they say look like an artillery hit by a 152 millimeter gun. highly explosive, with enhanced gunpowder charges, considering the position of russian and ukrainian troops, everybody, even the ukrainians, came to the conclusion that the administration building had been hit from the ukrainian side. it's interesting to know how precisely the building was hit, considering the density of construction in height is clear that ukrainian intelligence worked on it. the strike might be part of the ukrainian operation. the reasons for that are obvious. it was a provocative step by ukraine to play out the anti russian show. they took the fact of the explosion and spread it across social media. blaming russia. however,

the russian side claimed that it is a priori impossible. joe biden has given his 1st state of the union speech, choosing to focus on the ukraine conflict as domestic problems mount in the u. s. he said, the united states has joined the you in closing its aerospace to russian flights and specified that american forces will not participate in the conflict with russia or inflicting pain on russia and supporting the people of ukraine. prudent is now isolated from world more than he has ever been announcing that we will join our allies in closing off american aerospace to all russian flesh. her i say, adding additional free but let me be clear. our forces you are not engaged and will not engage in a client think with russian forces in ukraine. our forces not going to europe to fight ukraine,

but to defend our nato allies. the advantage decides to keep moving west. meanwhile, you politicians have called on the block to impose even harsher sanctions against russia over the conflict in ukraine as the e. u has already approved banning news outlets. r. t and sputnik as well as excluding some russian banks from the swift international transaction system. now the block is also considering restrictions on oil and gas imports, but he's charlotte davinsky reports. will these restrictions directly impact arty international and also our sisters station r t fronts here in france? what it means is that our channels are no longer allowed to podcast. whether that be on applications on a telephone via the internet, or even on television subscription services across the european union. those are new sanctions that have come into force on wednesday. now it comes as the e u says it has to stand in solidarity with ukraine as this war place out.

i am well aware that the sanctions will come at a cost far economy too. but i believe the people of europe understand very well that we must stand up against this cruel aggression. it's not only you true that to the touch international law worse bruce, international order, democracy, human did are awful. and i thought this is drew up a little terrorism, pure and simple. well, the ear is using a special sanctions regime to bypass the ordinary media licenses that apply. so to give you an example, artie france or says the station was given a renewed license to broadcast in france just back in 2020 a. despite that under this sanctions regime that can be taken off immediately. now,

arty frances denounced the action as saying that this is simply censorship. the decision to banner channel, which currently has $176.00 employees, including more than $100.00 journalist, is a violation of the rule of law and goes against the very principles of freedom of speech. nothing can justify the censorship. now there has been criticism over decision not just by one union of journalists, but also by the president of serbia. of course, serbia is not an u country, but the president says, saying this is what he said when they talk about freedoms. what they mean really in terms of freedom of the press, is the only freedom that they are thinking of is the freedom for themselves. now in a separate development. today, european energy ministers are going to meet to basically look at the use reliance on russian energy supply. so just to give you a sense, 40 percent of gas t used here in the you 35 percent of crude oil. more than 40 percent of coal

supplies all come from russia, and the e. u is desperate to win itself off those supplies as a result of not just the sanctions, but the fear that they say that russia could potentially turn off the gas supplies to europe. we've also heard from germany that says it regrets it's heavy reliance in the past on russian energy. as for germany, we have to admit that in the past we relied 4 to one sided lee on energy imports from russia. germany is more dependent than other european countries in this regard . this means there is an obligation to get rid of this quickly. now, other sanctions coming to bite on wednesday include the fact that certain russian banks are going to be excluded from the swift messenger service. all of the sanctions, the idea from the european union and the u. k, is to have a heavy financial and economic burden on the russian economy. we do also know that there has been further help for that via companies from the united states,

such as apple, keith, boeing and fort wall said that they have now suspended as their sales their transactions in the russian federation. and in another development. or we know in tuesday that president zalinski ukraine once again calls on the european union to look at immediate ascension for his country to the block. as a result of that, emmy peas on tuesday voted to ask for you institutions to start looking at how this could happen. now, this is a non binding vote. it doesn't mean that ukraine is about to join the european union. what it does signal though, is that the e u is showing that it has solidarity with ukraine, and it does see crane potentially in the future, being an e member. but not all you politicians share the blocks approach to the conflict in ukraine as a german m p says it's nato that is responsible for the crisis. as i hang the fall of taylor, it was

a fatal mistake to tease ukraine with impossible promises. joining me to end, the e. u. europe has direct ukraine into these confrontation. it will be smarter to do so, so that ukraine could develop. it can not be any once output. mate, a membership is a red line for russia. the russian federation will not allow this. he has been talking about it for 20 years. we heard from vladimir change of russia's permanent representative to the european union commenting on moscow's complicated relations with the block as well as restrictions imposed on r t. he says, the ease of sanctions are designed to push the russian government into making policy concessions. if so, the aim of the sanctions is to influence our rational state policy and the other views of the russian president. that is

irrational because of that aim will not be achieved by these symbolic sanctions and trying to locate non existent assets of brazil, boulden in europe, or elsewhere in the world. or is it just ridiculous? russia you relations have seen their ups and downs over the years. you can call me on the line. but what we witness today is certainly beyond any one comprehension for perhaps the european union of one of bruce with relevance and the situation financial war on my direct other can fish or if all russia oh,

to proceed to certain countermeasures along their track. our team is so i would say beloved target for our western oh regulators and western governments is portrayed as a propaganda channel. ah though. oh, i believe we are beyond just the current crisis. i believe it's a case of unfair competition from those who find themselves lagging behind in terms of popularity off or lagging behind our tea. ortiz, apple was removed from apple's app store after the u. s. tech company halted sales and russia. that's amid claims that the news agencies content was upsetting to some users. the app is to be removed from the app store globally,

but remain available in russia. now, earlier social media giants including youtube, tick tock and meta announced that they would restrict access to russian media outlets. r. t and sputnik in the u. r t is kind of blanco comments and says that the network has been caught in the middle of a massive information war, launched by nato countries and their allies. we got a response from meta on the issue. you are not independent media, you are a state agency of the russian government under the jurisdiction of putin responsible for war crimes. you do not publish independent reports about the statements of pretense politicians. you are a state integrated power propaganda tool that is published in the west with the intention of broadcasting the will of the putting government in our country. you are permanently opposed to the foundations of the german press code. you can't have any claims against us. we are part right in the middle of a major information of war, and i have to tell you that mater analyst and people who work for native for

a number of years now have been talking about the so called cognitive warfare reach . they saw as an alternative to a food kinetic warfare. many of the recommendations that they have been producing, i now use by the ukrainians. i mean, the, you're heard that warning by the russian defense ministry of the impending attack on the information in psychological center. and keep that center has been responsible for an avalanche of phone terrorism here in russia. because of the last couple of days we've been, there's been a huge wave of various alerts of various building social infrastructure, supposedly being bogged there. we are talking about shopping laws, kindergarten schools, etc. and it's not just a campaign of fakes, it's a very organized, it looks like caters but it's not. it's a, it's an organized deliberate information campaign they talk today. russia,

foreign ministry is sad that behind the avalanche of bags are special forces of nato countries. there is a degree of censorship or against our channel, against our agencies, which are actually producing verified information about what a police people here in moscow think about it that is being blog. so the access of european and american citizens, people are citizens of the world. actually to that kind of information is blocked. meantime, we have a huge operation to infiltrate the russian airways to affect the public opinion in this country through the use of various platforms, through the use of various media, which don't even bother to verify the information. there is a deliberate effort to make sure that the russian government crumbles the under the pressure from its its own population. that's so that's actually being the goal of

this cognitive warfare. more and more reports are appearing in the media and on social networks about russian citizens facing discrimination in western countries due to their nationality. our cheese pulse, we're expect. it's one thing to blame the russian government for ordering trip movements in ukraine. but it's quite another to put the responsibility on the shoulders of ordinary russians who are now feeling discriminated against and isolated, not to mention being banished. russian, conductor valerie, get, give, has refused to condemn his own country. and he is paying the price with immediate effect. there will be no further concerts by the munich philharmonic orchestra under his direction. other countries of also refused to cooperate with get, give and for not playing they tune. his korea is crumbling, internationally, fame, performer net, net trip cut has also been banned from the bavarian opera. russian sport is also under attack, and football is, are no longer allowed to play fee for. and you,

a for have to day decided together that all russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams shall be suspended from participation in both fee for and you a, for competitions until further notice. and the olympic committee is following suit . the international olympic committee executive board strongly urges international sports federations and organizes of sports events worldwide to do everything in their power to ensure that no athletes or sports official from russia or bell roofs be allowed to take part under the name of russia or bella. luce, russian, or bell, russian nationals, theaters, individuals, or teams, should be accepted only as neutral athletes or neutral teams. no national symbols, colors, flags, or anthems should be displayed. and not to mention the eurovision song contest whose organizers say russia participation would bring the competition into disrepute. it's certainly flies in the face of the european union and sustained

that it's not targeting ordinary people. i want to stay where we are not targeting russia people. many of them focus against the senseless war and i want to salute the courage. meanwhile, ordinary citizens are being discriminated against just for being russian. i'm not ashamed to say i'm russian, but i'm a bit afraid i'm worried society will have this perception that all russians are bad. and they were many cases of people being put to shame. but also split was only one way to counter this barrage of bruce's phobia. by drawing attention to the double standards that are employed in the west when doing russia. this is currently the only way to release cooled or collective sentiment in regard to russian citizens. in my opinion, the term double standards is widely used. now we see how they're applied in math when russian speaking ukrainians were discriminated against ukraine when the main right the right to life russians. and the don bass was violated. nobody paid attention to that. they thought it had nothing to do with human rights,

and that it was a domestic affair with an ukraine. this reaction has led to what ukraine has been doing for a long time. today. they've forgotten what's been happening in the dumbass for over 7 years. they forgotten what's been happening in ukraine lately. now they just talk about russians as the main violators of human rights. this issue requires attention in terms of our athletes. i hope those are just emotional steps. the international organizations are taking. i hope that soon people will realize that athletes have nothing to do with politics and with the current situation, i hope the international organizations will considerately, in regard to our athletes. appointment and powerful african prophet says that when elephant fight, it's the grass that suffers. it's one thing that the you and western countries of pushing back on moscow, but it's not clear why they choose to punish ordinary people. and what that can achieve. we should know that this is an incredibly volatile and fluid situation and our new team is working tirelessly to try and get you the best information, paul,

small, it is dividing lives and we're doing our best to auction to national, to bring it to you. ah oh. 2 2 with matthew needed to look to meet them with the nice couple

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