[000:00:00;00] a in this hours headline stories reports emerge of russian forces taking control of motor. you pull the city hall for a month, and i think with ukrainian horses continues, their european leader is subject to moscow's demand to pay for their energy supplies from russia in roubles about the currency begins to draw back value, lost them at the printing presses, and also ahead, what country is the main instigated? oh, this crisis. everyone knows china, luscious. america is methods in the ukraine conflict,

claiming it was washington who are originally instigated on inflamed the situation that comes of beijing ready for trade talks with russia. that's by daily pressure on asian countries from the, with the gas share there. there's this desire to malign are china. china poses sanctions of all forms. it poses threats of sanctions. and it supports the position of their child. if we have planned to make you believe, doing a multi nature, why did we have leading the multi point? it was being broad just india historically. ah 247. use lloyd from moscow. this is our t wherever you're catching the program from today. a warm welcome. my name's you

don't need let's get straight to the main developments in the ukranian conflict. it's being claim, the city administration building and model you. paul says now under the control of the russian military, as war rages in ukraine, china has put the blame on the u. s, claiming washington seeks to shift responsibility for its actions on to others. meanwhile, european commission chief, 1st of under lion, sees the block won't let russia se circumvent sanctions, and use energy supplies as an instrument of blackmail that comes after moscow announced that some friendly nations will have to pay for gauss in both. and with western sanctions on russia already putting global supply chain cylinder, extreme pressure, french president, manuel micron sounded the alarm over the possibility of an unprecedented food crisis. will establish into what's happening on the ground. it's being claimed, russian forces have taken control over the city hall and model for a month of intense fighting. this is some of the latest footage we've received

showing many of the residential buildings completely raised. locust claim the extremist age of. but tony and the ukrainian forces have been putting civilians at risk targeting the building. in this video the intent fighting as many of those costs in the crossfire on thursday, ukraine officials reported that almost 3000 more residents were successfully evacuated. more people are due to leave today for humanitarian corridors. ukrainian authorities have also accused moscow of illegally deporting around $15000.00 of the cities residents to russia, with the humanitarian situation in the city a breaking point. russia says it is continuing to distribute aid. meanwhile shelling was heard in the northern part of ukraine, 2nd largest city harcourt of on thursday. the instance left at least 6 civilians dead and more than a dozen wounded arctic tar park of a local shopping mall. that's according to local authorities. fixed smoke was seen

billowing from residential neighborhoods as well as blame russia. moscow has yet commented on the incident. the russian defense ministry said it has achieved its primary objective in the 1st stage of its military operation in ukraine, namely reducing the capability of ukrainian forces, which it says will lead to russia achieving its main goal. therefore, the liberation of don bos are to correspond either among concert can tell us more. while quite a few things had been as said at this, sir, breathing with the russian defense ministry and then let's try and go through it point by point. so at the moment, so russian forces have blocked f 5 major cities in ukraine. that includes a kia for higher golf i, czerny. gov. assume me, and nikolai of now i hear song region which is adjacent to our rushes. a crimea is now completely under control of the russian military,

as well as most of the ports of the zappa rosier region. now, they also added that ukraine's air defense systems and ukraine's a air force had been practically destroyed in the countries. a navy no longer exists now ukrainian casualties are up to date, have amounted up 283-0000 people. 14000 of those i have been i killed the defense ministry. our st. alyssa peroration is a contin, according to plan and ukrainian armies of combat potential had now been seriously depleted. and that will, of course, allow to complete the russian armies main task. and that is the liberation of both the next and elegance peoples republics. now, russia, sa, priority, they added is to rule out the any casualties among civilians. and for that they are using high precision weapons in order to destroy or ukraine's military capabilities

. their bases, their equipment, and other things as well as some of this we keep with the, you know, so we're quite as of the as of battalion dr. women and children from basements threatening them with weapons and sending them towards the advancing units of the don't ask republic, in order to hinder the offensive of the native force which the russian armed forces, on the contrary, seek to avoid unnecessary losses before the thought of the offensive ukrainian troops are invited to leave the compet area and returned their equipment and weapons to their home base. what you unfortunately, during the special military operation, we have suffered losses. as of today, 1351 service man have died with you and 3825 were injured. according to the russian defense ministry, the military operation against the ukrainian or military that began a month ago had prevented a very large scale offensive against said,

don barza republics are right here. now very claim is that they intercepted a coded secret order, where the preparation of the year of this offensive were supposed to finish at the end of february and start in early days or of for march. so by stepping in by is starting this military operation to the militarize entered in. that's a far ukraine. they have prevented hundreds and hundreds of thousands of deaths here in dunbar. of course people here civilians have been dying for the last 8 years. and that was said enough is enough. however, at this moment, a heavy shilling a both here in the nest can logan's well throughout the republics they continue and people continue to suffer. unfortunately, what is one issue agreement protocol shirt. the green and armed forces continue to selectively use of weapons in dunbar cities. an example of this is destroyed by the touch government, me so system and

a civilian population of don't ask and mucky of cra you. what we consider is a huge mistake for western countries to supply where of us to give me this delays. the conflict increases the number of victims and will not influence the outcome of the operation was the real purpose of such supplies is not to support the crane but to drag it into a long military conflict to the loss. ukrainian, we will more women. now defense ministry also touch the fact that so while some a nasal countries are saying that will have a no port in this a conflict. some other anita countries have been calling for a no nato, imposed and made a no fly zone over ukraine. our russia said that if for that will happen, they will react accordingly. 2 of those decisions. now i, meanwhile, elsewhere you cranes and national battalions such as azar of ides, are right, sector and others. according to russian defense ministry there, the backbone, oh,

for ukraine's of keith regime. and they're saying that said there are over 7000. 0, for those people serving in the ukraine and military. right, right now. moreover, they said it at least still more than a $6000.00 foreign mercenaries and even terrorists have found work and that refuge in ukraine. and they said if of, if they're, if they will have to deal with those people will a rules of engagement that don't apply to them and they will be destroyed on the spot. you leaders have slammed moscow's them on the quote on friendly states use the russian currency to pay for their gas imports objecting to vladimir putin request. they say the move would breach existing supply contracts earlier policy or talk me through the latest we heard from the german chancellor oil of shalt saying that there won't be that he simply said, we refuse to pay for russian oil supplies in rubles. his argument was that there are contracts in place and those contracts are in yours and dollars. these same

sentiment coming out of the poland state energy company, saying that they won't. and also they said that they can't reiterating that contracts have been signed and that to quote them that one party cannot modify a contract according to his will. and we've heard from several, you leaders, all of them saying that and that this is a breach of contract. some of them also scoffing at putin's quote, mention of unfriendly countries. this would be a unilateral decision and a clear breach of contract. and it would be an attempt to circumvent the sanctions . we will not allow our sanctions to be circumvented. the time when energy could be used to blackmail us as over. this is basically a breach of contract. this is important to understand. i don't think anybody in europe really knows how rubles look like. nobody will pay in roubles. apollo. let's just expand on that. we heard there are some claiming it's a breach of contract by moscow. but the

e. u has frozen russian assets all an unprecedented sphere. much of which by right is owned by the russian people. so is it up there wanting it both ways? well, there certainly is the point that it's smacks of double standards because for example, you have france which has just frozen the central acids belonging to rushes bank to the tune of 22000000000 years. at the same time, they have frozen private property that belongs to roughly 30 russians, and that is to the total of half a 1000000000 euros that's also been frozen. and the same kind of skips been taken in the netherlands, for example, where there is a letter from the finance ministry to the parliament there. and that was dated march the 21st saying that to the total $392000000.00 euros worth of russian assets and on sections had been frozen. so 30 does seem that we looking at a case of double standards and i think that's a valid point against the reaction that is that the you eat the,

the leaders in the west meters are putting forward now just finely than the rubles seems to be regaining. ground on the back of the president's demand after some big fluctuations in the past few weeks. the rebel is doing better. 8 am briefly left to a 3 week high pass, $95.00 against the dollar at pod gains, but it stayed well below a 100 closing at $97.00 and it is actually down now and more than 22 percent since phoebe the 24th. so it is still quite a, a wiring situation. we have a situation where putin has made it quite clear. if you want to buy russian gas, well, then you have to buy our currency. what is not clear though, is if he can unilaterally withdraw from these contracts that are in euro's and in dollars. and that's something that we'll have to look into. china has labeled the us, the quotes instigator of the crisis blooming washington for playing a primary role in fermenting. we're in ukraine without in mind. we're still listen,

china and india. how significant friday is talks between the 2 nations. foreign ministers could be seems to be a major price is involving all of the partners, all the countries offer asia and europe, and the u. s. is open just docs open to dialogue, and india is also a started at the moment. in gavin, you not take anything blind down. there's a lead editorial in china daily today titled india not obliged to scratch us back, strongly supporting india's choice to remain neutral and maintain ties with russia . i'm hopeful that this meeting for shout is a significant warming of relations between the 2 countries. as it's clear, they have a lot more in common than not, and perhaps points to a new era of friendly relations that will deeply unsettle washington's so called private asia. india has always maintained strategic independence between

on the back. no, it has and india is going to place you with that approach because that's been the broad just india historically. and i don't see any time changing on doctrine. now that we have this conflict in ukraine, there's this desire to, you know, malign and china to associate it with a conflict in some sense. why is the us trying to impose us on, on china? so now that the u. s. has the stabilized ukraine and fed this conflict. the us expects china in india to abandon their strategic self interest for fuels. aaron and neither prime minister mowdy nor presidents, champagne or fools, whilst demanding western countries sent more help for ukraine, including late late latimer zalinski has been comparing the conflict in the country with

a selection of pass disasters. critics have said the ukraine in president is cherry picking different historical atrocities to appeal best to the country he's talking to. let's go through that a little while speaking with israel in compared rushes operation to the holocaust. much to the younger of many local lawmakers who support ukraine, but team the comparison. a gracious then and an emotional address to us congress, he referred 911. then pearl harbor seeing his country experiences the same losses every day. during a visit to japan, he evoke memories of fukushima, the accused germany of allowing russia to recreate the berlin wall. the while to discuss this further were joined by richard met her, especially in international affairs and r t. contributor good to see you, richard is right. this month, we witness the lensky. compare so many atrocities of the past with the war and ukraine. i've just gone through the pearl harbor fukushima 911,

even the holocaust. how right is it to use such comparisons? well, 1st of all, thanks for having me on. i think it's, it's absurd and for once in my life i actually agree with the israeli on something . i don't think it's right to compare the situation in ukraine to the holocaust, both in nature and scale. and it's not does that actually when he was speaking to the israeli parliament to the connect that he did 3 things. number one he he compared to. busy what's happening and ukraine to the holocaust? also, he said that ukraine helped to jews in world war 2, which felt like he was white washing the ukraine. the role that ukraine played in killing holes in jews in the holocaust. and then of course, he tried to guild the israelis into sending ukraine weapons, namely the iron dome that he's been requesting for a while. i don't even know why,

because it wouldn't really help against russia in this case. but so that was quite the awkward exchange and you know everyone from the foreign minister to the prime minister now after the bennet are all kind of taken aback for this bizarre comparison. and it really just comes across as crazy because he goes and does this with every country that i run into when he spoke to the japanese he doesn't bring up here or she's not just talking which are arguably the biggest tragedies the disasters in modern japanese history. probably because the americans, you know, dropped those nuclear bombs. and then of course, as you mentioned, just now, he drew comparisons to $911.00. he drew comparisons to you know, the berlin wall for some reason. and what's ironic is just yesterday the training government on twitter, they posted a graph where they were trying to say that what's happened in syria. busy is not as bad as what's happening in ukraine, which again is weird because. busy and she says, the, all of these things are the, you know, the holocaust, 911, or is just as bad as ukraine. but what's happening in syria is apparently not as

bad. i just don't know why he does, but you also have the lensky con, injuring off the spirit, richard of winston churchill, while addressing the u. k. parliament. now it could be argued based on his homework because the u. k pm, baris johnson does like to see himself as a modern day church show. the addresses are becoming very specialized. yeah. yeah, absolutely. and it's weird though, because the west already supports ukraine, so i don't know why he feels the needs zelinski in his government. i don't know why they feel the need to go to these lengths to try to appease each each country. i. busy you know, hearing someone quote, martin luther king task for world war 3 is under the guise of a no fly zone. it just comes across. it's really weird and i know for a strong wants to see himself of some sort of, you know, modern day churchill. but i'm sorry, it's just not real easy. it's more of a joke than anything else. he has compared bars. johnson ukraine's battle with

russia with the struggle. britain, faith securing briggs. it. are these comparisons just getting more and more absurd? not yeah, of course, of course. and i think, i think what so ridiculous is that, you know, when, when, when people make these comparisons between what's happening in ukraine and world war 2, right. because he was mentioning the holocaust, you mentioned in winston churchill with boris johnson. i mean, i think people are forgetting the role that russia played because, you know, the soviet union played a big role in defeating the nazis. 18 percent of german casualties were inflicted by the soviets. the 1st to take berlin were the soviet delivery or the concentration camps. were the soviet so. 3 i don't know whether it's it's so you know, wilful or it's just historical illiteracy. but it's, it's really cringed and there's absolutely no need to do this. the west or any supports you frame. they're kind of just shipping the opposite effect. yeah,

those people listening to the address is politicians, countries, leaders. do you think that western ahmed truth towards moscow is going to, is going to alter, is going to get more stringent in the, in the coming months? you know, is it going to become more hostile or will moscow's red lines be respected? because you've already got people complaining about higher prices, etc. and that's not going to change. so are people's, the citizens are actually going to be listened to, or a politician is just going to carry on regardless. now, of course, they're not gonna listen to them. biden was saying before. busy that there's been going to be no disruptions in the supply chain with food. and then just yesterday he's, you know, he switches up as june and he's saying that yes, the food shortages are going to be real. and so i think people in the west, if they actually understood the blow back of sanctions because for once the, you know, the west people in the west are going to feel them. i don't think they would support the sanctions. yes, it's true that gas prices its own were already high before the war started, but,

you know, they, they've taken the situation and made it 3 times worse. and we've seen russia now asking europe, settle these when you are but unfriendly countries settled gas bills in rubles. i think this is a huge game changer and you're seeing also, you know, russia forging closer ties with china. the same thing with venezuela and iran discussing linking their payment systems to russia's near, you know, they're really kind of just speeding up the d dollarization of the world. and that's going to be very tough on consumers and on the working class in the west. but i think many would argue that that's ultimately a good thing because it's leading us for multi polar world. always an interesting take from richard med hearst journalist and r t contributor richard, thank you very much. thank you. know joe biden, who's in europe currently for talks with allies. i stated he had no intention of

running for president after leaving officers, vice president in 2017, but changed his mind in light of quote racist rallies across the country with people carrying torches and nazi boundaries. as he puts it, influencing his decision, i made a commitment. when i ran this time, i wasn't going to run again. and i mean necessarily, i had no intention of running for president again. and until i saw those folks coming out of the fields in virginia carrying torches and carrying nazi banners and literally singing the same vile rhyme that they used in germany in the early twenties or thirties, i should say, well, the united states has authorized $800000000.00 worth of military equipment to key of since the beginning of the war, sending more than $17000.00 anti tank weapons, including dublin missiles in conjunction with other nato member states. but just love the lowden, german of russia's parliament,

claims that weapons sent to kia for see by far right. nationalists battalions including the a's off battalion. the part of military groups have been widely condemned across the world with the un accusing the group of war crimes. in while some u. s. media outlets including cnn, now abuse statements from athos in their coverage of the ukraine conflict with, i'd mentioning the groups extremist use me. well, let's draw live nigh to independent journalist, benjamin norton, to hear his take. benjamin, thanks for taking the time. joe biden claimed he was not going to run for president after leaving offices, vice president in 2017 until he saw the far right marches in virginia. that was the switch. yet nato has armed, untrained, neo nazi paramilitaries in. you train, how does the tale with his statement,

you think? well, we see once again a, another example in a long history of us politicians saying something about their domestic politics and then doing something completely different and their foreign policy. this is very common in the united states. we see liberals and progresses, claim to care about human rights and democracy. and then they violate those principles around the world because really, their commitment to progressive values ends at u. s. borders. so we see that the, the joe biden, i mean, he was involved deeply in the war on libya that destroyed the most prosperous country in africa, bringing it open air slave markets. he was involved in the war on syria, which chris grated, one of the worst men attending catastrophes on earth. and he was involved in and continues to fuel the war on yemen, which has created the worst humanitarian catastrophe on earth. despite his promises repeatedly on the campaign trail to end the war in yemen instead is accelerated it

. so this is yet another example of that hypocrisy. and it was horrible to see former president donald trump say that there were good people on both sides of this neo nazi rally. he was talking about the counter protesters and, and the nazis. but, you know, biden is basically continuing the same policy and his foreign policy so domestically he will criticize nazis. but when the u. s. empire sees it's, you know, a politically advantageous to support nazis abroad, not just in ukraine. i mean, i mentioned syria. i mentioned libya, we know that the united states is a history of arming and training these extremist far death squads that were linked to al qaeda and syria. and what is the equivalent of that and ukraine? dig deep. java, a new sra of syria in ukraine would be the a's of regiment. and we have many pieces of evidence showing that the u. s. military has supported a's off. i want to remind viewers that the a's of regiment, this neo nazi gang, is part of the ukranian national guard,

a was in court rated into the ukrainian state after the 2014 qu, backed by the u. s. that over through the elected government of ukraine. and a's of has posted photos on its official website, showing a's of fighters meeting with u. s. military officers and also canadian military officers. and more recently, we saw that the group nextiva, which is a propaganda arm of the western back to bella rouge in opposition based and exile. even this group that is extremely anti russian. they posted photos on next up of these a's of nazis getting training from nato personnel and receiving nato weapons to fight russians. so this is not, this is my point pension. mimic receive, if other western governments also reportedly supporting ukrainian far right extremist in their battle against russian forces. without in mind, you think, feel the dodge my enemies enemies. my friend has it. it's just gone to extreme

levels here. well, like i said, unfortunately, this is not very new for western foreign policy. i wanna remind viewers that al qaeda and the taliban and even isis all have their origins in u. s. wars and ca, operations. it was in fact the u. s. war and afghanistan in the 1980s, the proxy war in which the c, i a pakistani intelligence and saudi arabia funded and trained and armed the mujahid dean in order to believe the soviet union that gave birth to al qaeda and the taliban were of course then went to the west and carried out all these terrorist attacks. of course, there's a very similar story for isis and syria. and i think there are a lot of people now who are rightfully concerned that many of these neo nazis that are being supported by nato. now, in ukraine, that when the war ends and the war is eventually going to end, where all of these heavily armed and trained nazi is going to go. i mean, there's very real concerns that they could go to the west and carry out terrorist

attacks just as the extremist far right islamist groups, backed by the c, i a in nato in afghanistan, the 19 eighties and syria in the past decade, also carried out. terry, that's very interesting point. cnn, by the way, it's not just governments, of course, you could other elements in the west you'd seen and quoting, a commander of ukraine's new nazi a's of battalion without mentioning at all, his hate at groups extremist views. what is your take on western media's coverage of parliamentary forces on the rule in the conflict? well, in general, we've seen that western media coverage of ukraine is, i mean, some of the most blatant propaganda ever see. and all they do is just simply regurgitate the unsubstantiated claims of western intelligence agencies and the ukranian government itself. without any evidence they, they simply portray these claims as, as if they are fat. and especially when it comes to giving platforms to these neo

nazi extremis. we've seen it repeatedly. cnn has repeatedly used footage from a's of nazis and simply portrayed their claims as facts as, as if you can just believe these nazis and you don't have to entertain any skepticism. cnn has not identified them in any ways as extremist as nazis. and it's not just cnn. we've also seen for instantly recently, for instance, that p b s, which is a u. s. government backed broadcaster p b s, had a softball interview. give this massive platform with a neo nazi mayor from a town in northern ukraine. and they didn't mention, for instance, that this neo nazi mayor has the symbol 1488 on his car, the 88, and 1488 stands for heil hitler. the 14, it stands for the 14 white supremacist word slogan. and another fact that was incredible about this p b. s propaganda. is that this neo nazi mayor during the video interview behind him

on the wall, he had a portrait of step on bendara, the neo nazi or excuse me, at the noon. i see the old school nazi, the ukrainian nazi collaborator who is the leader of the organization of ukrainian nationalists, b o u n b benefit on top of this nazi collaborator on the wall and p b. s. didn't even mention that where right off the end. but thank you so much for coming in the program and sharing your views with us. benjamin norton, independent journalist life on our team. thanks for having me. a coon ukraine 8 years ago to the scene for witnessing today in the country out. and one lead to the other next our short talk takes us through that with

my daily liquidity. she'll know it will show the portion of my done, you know,