ah, ah, done yet, script public forces claims have taken control of a district in central mario pl evacuations of civilians is underway or corresponding with people who are trucks in the war. phone city now get think humanitarian aid are out in the outskirts of our evil. some, a lot of these people have lost their homes. they spend the last couple of weeks hiding in the basement. under shelling, a mass rally is the streets and madrid as thousands of lloyd drivers protests against skyrocketing fuel prices. and opening the pressure, the west tries to force india to change its neutral status towards russia view of the war in ukraine, although its efforts are so far in vain. ah,

coming to you live from our headquarters here in moscow. you're watching the international. just going for am here in the russian capital. mine is peter scott. and here the top stories. this our now straight to the main developments in the ukranian conflict. the russian defense ministry is that it is achieved its primary objective in the 1st stage of its operation, and as namely, reducing the capability of ukrainian forces, which it says will lead to russia achieving its main aim. i. the liberation of dumbass russian officials also stated on friday that more than 1300 of its soldiers have been killed with almost 4000 injured. while it's being claimed that the fighting emer, you pull is moving closer towards the sea. meanwhile, mass protest,

the soaring of food and fuel prices are seen in europe, caused by the crippling sanctions imposed on russia. well, let's 1st sprayed down what's happening on the ground. the onions republic forces claims had taken control over one of the districts in the sense of now you full fighting with ukrainian forces and the gulf battalion is said to be becoming more sporadic. that in the military is conducting a building to building search, looking for militants, reportedly pretending to be civilians. meanwhile, locals claim ukrainian forces and letting people out of the city and deliberately targeting them. an elderly woman seen in this video and her granddaughter both receive gunshots, wins to their legs. we heard from the daughter of that woman, we just wanted to leave the city, at least the left bank. we will not let out. they shot both of our cause and told us to return back. so we returned back with the wounded nurse has just helped us

with 1st aid. my mother has 2 penetrating bullet wounds. we took her to hospital, but all the windows were broken there and the poor doctors are doing everything they can. there are not sees in our neighborhood. they kicked us out. thank god, we met russian troops. they helped us to evacuate the wounded while despite the difficulties, more than 600 civilians, including 100 children, were reportedly evacuated yesterday from multiple, then i'll receiving you monetary, an a. t 's roman casa reports from the ground. we are now scarce of the city of mario for here than esc people's republic. there are hundreds of for refugees here who managed to leave the city. some of them came by footsteps. some of them are using their cars that we brought some humanitarian aid here along with the soldiers of the nest people's republic. there are food items of bread, jan foods reserves and dry goods. others also clothing here as well,

for those people who left their homes in a hurry. oh, well, probably with that anything just with their documents and some cash in hand. now, once again, we are out in the outskirts of our roubles some, a lot of these people have lost their homes. they've spent the last couple of weeks hiding in the basement on their shelling but valley city level. but those that knew by the violin we were hiding in a basement near the factory, right in the hot spot is not for our men. we would have died of hunger along with our children. it's really scary now in our city. is our apartment in the whole building has burned down. the shelling started and we had to hide in a basement for $23.00 days. yeah. with a keys with president bush, so we have nowhere to go. we have lived here for 6070 years, and now we're homeless. all my relatives are now in. marry you, paul. my nephew with his 4 children are in. marry you, paul. now i can't leave before i know what happened to them. i don't know whether

we will be able to go back to it. i hope they will rebuild at least some houses. but now, as i understand, said their lives are no longer in danger. but we're still hearing sounds over it's hillary here, but i've been told by soldiers of this area is pretty safe now at once. they get their queue and it's aaron 8 here. they will move onwards either today or next, or to a rushes ra stove. but at this point, their lives are no longer under threat. russia and ukraine going on throughout the week, both sides have started an exchange of prisoners. 11 crew members of the millennial spirit ship, which was attacked in the black sea, have returned back to moscow. nevertheless, the had of russia's negotiation seemed, says negotiations still have a long way to go. but a sucrose with us who would a representative. so the ukranian delegation talk about optimism and great progress

in the negotiations. but i don't share that optimism because there is no movement on the principle positions that the russian side insists on. unfortunately, we see a desire on the part of our ukrainian colleagues to delay the negotiations. they take their time and frankly say that they have many decision making centers which certain positions have to be coordinated. and the interview for the b, b. c, members of the ukrainian delegation directly say that the leadership of ukraine coordinates all its positions with foreign advisors. this is quite frankly and very self revealing a today european council summit has wrapped up in brussels, where leaders met to discuss the conflicts in ukraine as well as security and economic issues. and they all agreed on giving their own wavering support to ukraine in the face of quote, russian aggression democracies of the world stand together against put ins warren. we will further increase our support to ukraine. we will sharpen our sanctions and

we will break free from russian fossil fuels. rushes moves to resist the current sanctions slapped on the country also covered at the summit. moscow's demand, the quotes on friendly states use the russian currency to pay for their gas in force was slammed by the european leaders objects into bloody moved to tunes request. they say the move would reach existing supply contracts wirelessly. a discuss the issue with my colleague unit o'neil. we heard from the german chancellor olive shalt saying that they won't do that. he simply said, we refused to pay for national oil supplies in rubles. his argument was that there are contracts in place and those contracts are in euro's and dollars. the 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 well. and we've heard from several e, u leaders, all of them saying that at 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 is 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 asset sol, an unprecedented scale, much of which by right is owned by the russian people. so is it that they're wanting it both ways? well, that's certainly is the point that it facts of double sanders 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 flips being taken in the netherlands. for example, where is alicia? that was written from the finance ministry to the parliament there. and that was dated march. the 21st saying that to the total 392000000 euros with a russian acids and transactions had been frozen. so 30 does seem that we're 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 beatles and waste need is putting forward now just finally, then the rubles seems to be regaining ground on the back of the president's demand after some big fluctuations in the past few weeks, and then we will is doing better. it briefly left to a 3 week high pass,

$95.00 against the dollar at pod games, but it stayed well below a 100 closing at $97.00 and it is actually down now more than 22 percent since for the 24th. so it is still quite a wiring situation. we have a situation we put in, has made it quite clear if you want to buy russian gas, well then you have to buy, i'll come and see what is not clear though, is if he can unilaterally with, for, from these contracts that are in years and in dollars, and that's something that we have to look into an interview to see, and we know of a, the, the former russian presidents and current deputy chair at the security council. dmitri made video of said functions currently crippling the russian economy could not be compared to the problems caused by the 1st wave of the kobe pandemic. answering a question from our ria norris from ria novice the claimed. the current challenges are not catastrophic. and the full interview will be ad today. and here's a quick preview. some says that from the left side of his theater,

he saw the sanctions has been applied to put pressure on every sector. alchemy feels as if now in contrast to the situation when the soviet union put out the iron curtain to shut itself off from the west of its own whale. russia has been forced to put that curtain up and become some sort of a new north korea. this is like people don't want it, no one wants it, but the big powerful machine is already working and someone is pushing the buttons . i'm saying is like north korea because north korea was buried under the sanctions . most like cuba, where people still drive cars, maintained in 196 says will be. so maybe someone wants russians to start going through scrap metal. and if they're in olds approach, it's caused to drive them. she says, god or lawyer wrote a shame that i sold mine. i used to own a julie car from the 1980s. i guess i could use it now, but again yours. we have a letter that was probably the idea which they, sir. so what do you think has a worst case scenario? could this kind of thing happen in russia because asylum? the hitler, the human? i think everyone understands that it can't. even though in the course of this

interview, i did question the intellectual abilities of the people who come up with all these sanctions against russia. i must say there are different people there and some realize very well what's going on. you see, all of them understand that with all june utmost respect to our friends in cuba and the democratic people's republic of korea. russia is no. cuba and no north korea. russia is russia, the world's largest country, a permanent member of the un security council, a huge economy, and a nuclear power, which is why all these ideas that russia can't be curbs, like cube, or north korea once were. and that it could just be kept that way. don't have a leg to stand on. it's impossible. it's just utterly impossible. even if some in the political circles and a leads of the west would want it that way. below yes, there obviously challenges and we'll have to overcome them. unfortunately, they exist both of the governments and every day level. still it's nothing new for us and it's not catastrophic. it pales in comparison to the hardships that our country had to go through in 20th century. i tell he want,

he's not even in the same league with the problems we face during the corona virus pandemic. back then we really felt uneasy from time to time because we had no idea how this virus would behave, regardless of where it came from, couldn't kill off most of humanity. like in some sy, fi books back then things were much more tense. i'd say the tragedy of course, is that the virus caused so many deaths. but this is a different story and there can be no illusions here. they're trying to put us into the rogue nation or wrote country category as for its etymology. i think it was reagan who came up with that term. russian translation for it is outcast, but rogue is actually close in meaning to outlaw. in fact, it's the u. s. that the rogue nation here is not because we don't like americans because the u. s. is constantly launching was of conquest across the world. they are the outcast and the outlaw. ah. though it may have warned about the issue of neo nazis in ukraine in the past,

but it seems the b, b, c is thing a little more quiet. now, the broadcaster has interviewed a ukrainian soldier with an infamous nazi symbol, clearly seen on his uniform. what a believable mark tells us, we have to move a couple of the patch on the soldier's arm is the symbol of nazi germany. is s s division known as death's head. the division was formed of concentration camp guards at the starts of the 2nd world war. and it was known for the mass murder of war prisoners, including $97.00 british soldiers captured in france in 1940 boats. no mention of any of this was made during the interview and contrast that with the past back in 2014, the b b. c reported on the role of neo nazis in the conflict in ukraine. and in 2012, the channel made a documentary over racism and anti semitism in ukrainian. and ukraine as well as quinton, as well as polish football stadiums that came ahead of the euro championship. held

in the 2 countries and showed neo nazi gestures be made ukrainian stadiums of for more on this, we are joined to live now by max blumenthal, editor of the gray zone marks welcome to artsy, international. thank you for joining us. and so in the past, the bbc and other sources have been keen to mention the legend, neo nazi threats in ukraine. but they seem somewhat hesitant now. are you surprised by that? i'm not surprised at all because as i just revealed at the gray zone, the b, b. c correspondent and fixer who is shaping that networks coverage of the events around mar, you poll is actually a ukrainian nationalist. public relations operative who is involved in creating a viral app that is being called by the washington post, one of the top ukrainian information weapons. this is a network that is completely on the chosen sides in this war and is a part of the british state. and so i'm not surprised with the white washing. it is

unfortunate though that western audiences are deprived of important context on ukrainian politics. and what brought the situation to this point because as we know, latimer zalinski who campaigned on a piece platform, was effectively intimidated along with many other officials and ukraine against implementing important agreements by these very neo nazi and fishes stick elements . and now we see him as he is the war president honoring with the hero of ukraine award. dennis pro panko, the commander of the as of battalion in variable. so would you say that the mainstream media is under reporting the problem of extremism in ukraine? yeah, i mean, the asked, he has just published a piece on the as of battalion because they are frontline fighting force in this conflict. and they said that their d i d d ideologies that they no longer believe in neo nazi ideals. and this doesn't

real disservice to anyone who is trying to imagine a post war situation. because if there is a post world war settlement, the as of battalion and its civilian wing, the national cor, have spelled out their intention to wage civil war against liberal governments and presidents like a zalinski. and they have called for a re con keesa of the white christian people across europe to purge all of europe of migrants and impure people. they do uphold a fish, a stick ideology. and after the war, they could be even more powerful than now. you might have just touched on on, on this then max, we're going to slightly more philosophical question for you now. to what extent does the ideology of troops matter in a situation like the war ukraine, you have a country that is out numbered and outgunned and defending itself. how important is the ideology? was it not?

well, it would have been important for western media to have talked about the ideology of the african was a d and, and specifically their foreign allies coming over from saudi arabia. because then they would have understood the blow back that the west experienced from arming and training. these forces the same and syria training al qaeda aligned forces. the issue of blow back is real and when arms are pouring in and we're seeing british made light anti tank weapons in the hands of fascist right sector battalions and the as of battalion, we should be concerned about what will happen with these weapons after the war what they will do and whether they will carry out their plans for a civil war or a wider conflict beyond ukraine. and that's why it's important, as well as the fact that they helped inspire this conflict and accelerate the push to war with their actions in eastern ukraine around the don bass, consistently attacking civilians and violating agreements. now, in your opinion,

if the situation with fall right elements in ukraine, fundamentally different to other countries, for example, because obviously we know that this, this in incursion was launched. we're, we're the reason into the not sci fi ukraine. do you think is difference anywhere else? why obviously the, the, the russian security apparatus has an agenda well beyond the knots of occasion, though that may be a part of it. the issue here is that in the united states, our secretary of defense lloyd austin, has called for a anti extremism initiative within the military to purge the ranks of right wing extremists that made many people really offended, particularly conservative because there is no official neo nazi or right wing extremist unit in the military. ukraine is one of the only countries in the world that has an officially neo nazi unit with nazi inspired insignia incorporated into

a national guard who civilian wing. the national corps has operated under the auspices officially of the interior ministry, and that i think, makes it unique as received weapons from the united states, israel and other nato partners. and it will continue to hold those weapons as long as this post. my dance date is intact on rosie. wait to see what happens with you know, post conflicts. moving on, mark's, there been some media reports that claim that the ukranian businessman linked to russia, paid for swastikas to be painted around in order to maybe exaggerate the nazi presence in the country. what's your take on lots well, there's very little need to exaggerate the presence of fascist sympathizers in ukraine. and you know, it wouldn't be hard to find them in, in my country as well. the difference is that you have streets named after nazi collaborators like step on mendera, who have been hailed by

a who's who of ukrainian leaders as a hero. when his record consists of pogroms against ethnic poles, jews, and other minorities. you also have streets and stadiums named after roman shoe cave is the commander of ukrainian partisan army. you oversaw some of the most brutal pilgrims of world war 2. i from not incorrect the street, the leading to bother you are the sight of a massacre of jews was named after ben dera. you have celebrations and commemorations for these figures as well as giant marches of the as of battalion in broad daylight. and you have so i don't think there's any need to exaggerate this. the irony is that the jewish presidency, lensky is top finance here, who also happens to be jewish eager column. my ski has funded the as of battalion, so you have oligarch supporting them directly. well, marks, blumenthal edits of the grey zone. thank you very much for joining us today and for your insights on the situation. you can thank you very much. thank you. ah,

thousands of laurie drivers have hit the streets of madrid to protest against sky rocketing prices of food and fuel brought about by the unprecedented sanctions. slots on russia demonstrates is blocked the main avenue of madrid, demanding the resignation of the spanish transformed minister. and since he rejected a $1000000000.00 euro support package aimed at alleviating the surging fuel prices, which passed the benchmark of nearly $1.00 euros per liter. earlier this month, since the stringent sanctions have been imposed on russia, european countries are struggling with increasing food and fuel prices. demonstrations have also been held in germany, france, spain, and greece with protesters throwing burning tires on to a highway in blocking roads. some governments have even suggested people reduced their heating in order to cut their bills. we ask people in paris what they think

of those suggestions? 01 thought aust, news, i don't know at what point it is going to impact and i don't know how long will it continue. we have to see how the situation is going to evolve him or if it lasts long. it's not as that should reduce our heating and reduce our consumption of petrol or other things to issue really well. a dollars professionally, not just reduce heat. yes, of course, but in paris, in a small apartment, it is easy, joseph se, but there are a lot of houses that may become harmful for health when it comes to energy efficiency is i'm was, which is pretty good. i'm not using gas already. what else can i say to you? less heating? well, we will see, since the winter is more complicated than summer, it was the situation in other countries as even worse than here in france. my boy, but we are going to play this game. we must cbs fox on, on my know we offer and is not only europe hit by dramatically increasing prices due to the sanctions in the us fuel prices have surged to their highest numbers in

14 years. the inflation rate is going through the roof to the latest data shows. inflation is at its highest in 40 years, reaching 7.9 percent is or some people in the us had to say about the situation. not so great is it, you know, because people on a limited budget struggling it's definitely concerning that. i mean, you really only with the us national security advisor, jake sullivan has reiterated that if russia uses chemical weapons in ukraine, the u. s. will respond effectively. although we still didn't disclose what the nature of that response would be, it comes after president biden warned yesterday, jonah nato summit, that if moscow use the weapons,

it will trigger action from the alliance. with the u. s. or nato respond with military action. if he did use chemical weapons, we would respond, we would respond if you use it, nature. the response would depend on the nature of the use. less cost live now to political analyst and journalist nico house, nico welcome to r t international. so we had the u. s. leaders warning about the threats of russia using chemical weapons in ukraine. why do you think that even talking about their use? well, i, i'm kind of confused as to why they would actually think that russia is more likely to use chemical weapons in the ukraine when in recent history they don't have any record of using chemical weapons at all. in fact, in the us, they've had a bad habit of using chemical weapons, whether you want to talk about agent, orange and viet nam depleted nuclear uranium in the middle east. and, you know,

even army some, what they call, you know, that people call rebels with chemical weapons. so they're in the chemical weapons that are available or that could be used were created by the us in the us is the one with bio weapons labs on rushes borders. so i feel like this is a deflection tactic, but more importantly, i think it's a precedent, a scary precedent. and one that we've seen said before, where there is a claim made by the us at a, this is a red line and you don't cross it. and then all of a sudden, with no strategic value whatsoever it's, it's cross and then we later find out that it wasn't actually the cope that you know, that the perpetrator that the u. s. claim were actually the culprits. and instead it was now the us, the us, as of course, denied the labs and ukraine, our weapons related. but back in 2013 then us president barker. bama said the use of chemical weapons in theory, it will be a red line. but then he did nothing about it. do you think though we'll see anything different this time? were they to be use see, i don't actually like the,

the claim that nothing was done about it. to be clear. they bombed at syria into oblivion, said isis rebels, into syria, to create a pretext for us in bay. they claim that we never had any troops on the ground, but as a veteran who was stationed in $5.00 to $5.00 battlefields and does brigade in north carolina in fort bragg, i can assure you that is not the case. we've had troops on ground. we've had those reports on grounds, have a ranger battalion on ground in syria. i mean, they made the same page about the duffy and libya said we didn't have troops on the ground there and we didn't do anything about the situation. but we had troops there just because they might drip them or draped them. those troops in nato, a tire claimant. they're working with natal. so it doesn't count doesn't mean they are doing anything about it. but they have troops there and pole in the right now. but just wanted to go speak to them, where he actually said that they'll learn what those people in the credit gone through when they are there. and the president doesn't generally bid troops unless they are going to deploy into combat. and this seems to be the case. everything is

unfolding, seemingly like it's unfolded in syria and even libya, especially with the nato context of it all went pushed us leaders and job vitamin in particular, haven't elaborated on what the nato response would be to the use of chemical weapons in ukraine. would you like to speculate on what we could expect? oh, i would expect something very similar to, to libya. so obama was talking about how nato was going to get involved. frequently . he was criticized initially for basically hiding behind nato. and they said he wasn't strong enough on the issue, but obviously we know the nato coalition is bigger than the united states, and that's actually probably more dangerous. and just the united states getting involved. and so he, whenever gadhafi allegedly attacked his own people, we got him assassinated in 2012. i believe it was. and obama cheered and said this

was a nato victory was a nato driven victory. and they didn't even know if it was from france or natal power that you know, they had bombed cowboy, but they do know that they attribute it all to nato. and so we're back it, so now you good dog. he was paranoid. rightfully so. then we see a sod paranoid, rightfully so, because every time it gets involved, these are the same threats that you hear the, the dog was that your dictator dictate. this is poormen's war. this is a sod we're there. dictate when you start here in these labels assigned to the leaders during complex, such as these involving nato, didn't we know what comes next? usually they attempt the nato power, the tim to cripple your country economically. if that, if that doesn't work, or sometimes even if it does work, they didn't start taking military action. now we don't know what they'll call it, because sometimes they attack the leaders directly or their government directly. or sometimes they hire these quote unquote rebel that you end up being faster

extremists. but make no mistake about it. they're going to take action. and i just would say that it really doesn't matter whether or not russia actually does committed chemical tests. not that it, not that they would, but they're going to make, they're going to have the same reaction in my opinion, to claim that russia will, will commit chemical up with tax just to get the people galvanized behind this issue that most people probably didn't even care about or know about until they thought it was affecting their, their bank accounts. well, nico house, political analysts and journalists, i'm afraid we got to leave it there. but thank you very much for your insight today . what i say for now feel free to head over to r t dot com for more stories. an in depth analysis money's be to scott and i'll be back again at the top of the hour. thank you. ah.