[000:00:00;00] ah mm. washington scrambles for damage control after another media ball. michelle by president biden is suggested the u. s. is seeking to topple vladimir also ad on the program. concerns monitor allege war crimes by key if not softer. on verified video emerges online, claiming to show ukrainian forces shooting and beating russian prisoners of war a russian foreign minister, a surrogate love ralph say's. western countries are preaching from an authoritarian position while lecturing others about freedoms and equality is community of democracy. the form of the united states lay to and the european union is in

relation to other representatives of the world community, an open a talk or see if not a dictatorship ah, wherever you're catching the program from today. welcome to moscow into the news our and our team. my name's unit o'neill. let's start by recounting the main events in the ukraine conflict. den yet republic forces have raised their flying over the administration building in the embattled city of murder. you call on the russian defense ministry says it's offensive, is going according to plan with the 1st phase of objectives completed. the m. o. d also says almost the entire republic of luke dance scanned over half of the done yet republic are now under control of russian or pro russian forces. also, this week, we'll see a new round of talks between russia and ukraine hosted by turkey. he

didn't really mean it. now, the latest message from washington after president biden stated over the weekend, not love him or can not remain in power biden's administration. there's no trying to clean up his media golf, saying the u. s. president is not actually calling for regime change in russia. i think the president, the white house, made the point last night that quite simply president cannot be empowered to wage war or engaged in aggression against ukraine or anyone else. as you know, and as you've heard of say, repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in russia or anywhere else for that matter. look, the president had spent the day visiting with ukrainian refugees in the moment. i think that was a principal human reaction to the stories that he had had that day. well, that's good morning. now, with our case, kill up month and kill up some pretty astounding backtracks there,

including from the us secretary of state saying that the president meant to say empowered instead of staying in power tickets through some of the damage control men for biden. sure we have the white house back tracking and us officials backtracking. what sounded like a blatant call for regime change from the u. s. president and the u. s. president is supposed to be the head of state who represents the country and articulate correctly what its foreign policy is. it sounds like the foreign policy of the state does do topple and overthrow. the russian government remove its head of state from power. and this is what was said by joe biden, which they're now trying to roll back and backtrack. here's what was said. for god saying this man cannot remain power. now it's also important to note that there have been a number of occasions where joe biden, as said things about the russian leader that he, they're rather unclear. right? i mean,

he's used very provocative language to describe the russian president. and then in some instances, rolled it back or corrected himself. i mean, he's not very articulate when it comes to explaining what the u. s. policy toward russia really is. this is some of joe biden's comments about russian president vladimir putin. you know, let him report you think he's a killer or do so, what price must he pay? the price is going to pay. well, you'll see shortly present by regret calling fatherhood. and i know that the president gave a direct answer to a direct question and you're going to see when you're there so, so you've been there, you're going to see you're going to see women. young people stand on standing, the middle of the from dam tank to say, i'm not leave and i'm home my ground. the president has been clear. we are not

sending us troops to ukraine and there is no change in that position. the no, or the user was not clear messaging from the president of the united states when it comes to dealing with russia. now at this point, we have many countries around the world that want to bring an end to hostilities in ukraine. they want the situation with fighting and dying, taking place to be brought to an end. they want negotiations to resolve the fighting, bring us the fire, and still have so many european leaders, including many members of nato, long time. us allies are not thrilled about what joe biden said, that it seems that instead of filling out their, fulfilling their goal of trying to end the tension. he's boring gasoline onto the fire. this is, this is the international reaction to jo biden's recent comments that are now being backtracked. bottle of wood, you can,

i wouldn't use this kind of words. if we want to do this, we mustn't escalate neither with words nor with action needed. how help for otherwise was the us president joe button, seeming to call see me over raising change in russia on saturday, but then rowing back in washington, yesterday. circuit with things coming, not helpful to say something to ro back fixing to say probus reasons. now if you look at the polls here in the united states, joe biden approval rating his tanking americans are not happy about the domestic situation. the crumbling infrastructure, the rising price of fuel, the rising price of food, a lot of unrest at home. a lot of folks just not thrilled with how the biden administration is doing things they promised to pick up the pieces from trump and, and correct the errors of his mismanagement of the pandemic that they accused him of. and things have just gotten worse, and a number of americans are wondering if joe biden should perhaps focus on trying to

improve the situation domestically than trying to in intensify the flames of international problems around the world. by calling for the toppling and overthrow of the russian president. so a lot of people looking at joe biden and questioning his competency here. he cannot clearly articulate u. s. policy when it comes to russia. it sounded pretty clearly like you want to overthrow the russian government. now they're saying, oh no, he didn't mean that he meant, empowered, very, very strange. not a lot of clarity coming from washington when it comes to dealing with russia and their response to the conflict. life from new york city are tease caleb 9th and caleb. thank now authorities from the done yet people's republic have relief footage, allegedly showing ukrainian forces shooting and beating russian prisoners of war. we won't show the disturbing video just some heavily redacted slides, as it betrays bones, soldiers lying on the ground with multiple bullet wounds to their legs, while others have broken boats. the head of rushes,

investigative committee has ordered an investigation into the incident. ukrainian officials gave this comment there. could you be sure to know about it soon? i remind everyone that abusing prisoners of war is a war crime that does not carry amnesty on their international law and does not have an institute of limitations. we are a european army over european country. we treat prisoners according to the geneva convention, no matter what your personal emotional motives may be. for the earlier paula slayer told me more about the contents of the disturbing footage as well as reaction to the video. it's very gruesome footage, it's almost 6 minutes. i had a look at it earlier and it really is very upsetting. now you can hear in the background ukrainian soldiers saying that they have captured a russian recognizance group. it seems to have happened around 20 miles from the russian border in the region of hoc. if you see in the video, russian prisoners of war who are lying on the ground,

their hands are tied. they have multiple looks like stab wounds on their bodies at the same time. they've been heavily beaten and they are being interrogated by men with blue on bands, which obviously shows you that they belong to the ukrainian military, but possibly also to some of the nazi groups that we've been highlighting. you also then see 3 prisoners of war being ordered out of a van, and then at close range, they are shot in the legs. now we are receiving reports that some of those in the video did die during this whole interrogation. in terms of the reaction, we've had a different reaction from 2 different apartments in ukraine. the ukranian government itself has expressed alarm, saying it's going to launch an investigation and that as a european country, it knows its army doesn't behave like this. but there was a request that was also sent to the ukrainian defense ministry, and they did not specifically refer to this incident. but they did say that there were instances in the past where they blamed essentially russia for staging. things

like this way, you see russian soldiers on the ground and ukrainians, mistreating those soldiers. now a number of channels, not any owls, have chosen not to show the footage because it is so crucial. but of course, this had to stop journalists from having a conversation that really needs to happen. ukrainian soldiers shoot to russian prisoners of war in the legs and filmed themselves doing it. video below shows about 6 other russian soldiers with similar wounds without question. it's a war crime and nothing to justify it, even if it is not what we would like to report, it still has to be reported. if war crimes don't disturb you, because they're against russians, think about how the soldiers who are willing to shoot unarmed prisoners might be willing to treat ukrainian civilians. the videos appear to be true. brushing prisoners of war are being shot in the leg by ukrainian soldiers, and some might die post shot. now obviously we've received a lot of reaction from users as well. just looking at the extensive chinese online

reaction. you've had people saying things like the ukranian forces really need to be destroyed, that they haven't seen any video. lexus with russians mocking ukrainian prisoners of war. the ukrainians are behaving that the japanese did in changing and ukrainian army is nothing sort of behaving the way isis behaved. a lot of reaction there was but the kremlin one of these and almost immediately muslim stated, was launching a probe to what it described as extreme cruelty. we have heard from a criminal spokesperson, who has said that they will be studying or the fax off to which they would want to know that the people who participated in these torches are persecution and are punished. we'll pull it brings up to the point of international law. how might this alleged treatment of the capture soldiers be seen in terms of that will certainly violation of international law. you already have human rights watch that in the past has, has spent questions and expressed alarm to the grading government in terms of the

hundreds of thousands of videos that are being uploaded that seem to intimidate russian soldiers. of course, as a breach of the geneva convention, we're talks about teaching or cheating, prisoners of war with dignity and not putting them at risk will be able to identify the more they families. you have videos in the past, not just like that, but you have way individuals are being named with their families will be named where the identities are being given. where you, you see the soldiers being humiliated. you see the soldiers being punished back on march the 10th human rights watch fainter quest to the ukrainian government because of it was so concerned about these videos. and on march the 16th, if it's still not received a response, but we can take a look at that. such treatment of prisoners of war violates protections under the geneva conventions intended to ensure a dignified treatment of captured competence on all sides. they make clear that prisoners of war must be treated humanely in all circumstances and protected against any active violence, as well as against intimidation, insults,

and public curiosity. international committee for the way across has also come out and expressed concern over what it says is, particularly the identification of individual prisoners in such videos. and earlier i spoke with the human rights lawyer duncan lake. he believes there's a lack of consistency when it comes to how human rights are treated across the globe today, particularly when it comes to war. ukrainian soldiers are violating the geneva conventions. i mean the truth is in war. they tend to be honored mostly in the breach as a practical matter. but they are still very much in an in force. and in fact, you can even go back to the hague convention of 19 o 7, you know, for so for over a century the community of nations is agreed on many things, including that civilians need to be protected during war. and also the prisoners of war have to be treated with respect and decency savvy. we see it over and over again. that when it comes to human rights, there is definitely an opportunistic use of the human rights doctrine to try to

punish the enemies of the west. and the u. s. while basically ignoring the human rights abuses of our friends, like for example, saudi arabia ah, how it treats its own people. and how it's treating horribly that people in yemen is just one example. those things tend to be ignored while we highlight the abuses of, of our adversaries and sadly i, i don't see that changing any time soon, but we have to bite for that type of consistency. and now human rights is treated ok. news just the in on the program, russian 1000000000 or a business men, rahman abnormal, which on at least 2 ukrainian negotiators were reportedly poisoned earlier this month. others according to a new report in the u. s. media abramivitch and the ukrainians were allegedly treated for chemical poisoning. after they met in key at the head of plan talks with russian officials, the reported symptoms included red eyes on peeling skin on their faces and hands.

although their said to have made a full recovery. it's not clear who could have orchestrated such an instance. russia was not directly involved in that meeting in care of earlier in march and neither ramana avenue, which are key of have yet commented on thought, report from the wall street journal. not done yet. military trips raised their flag over the local administration. headquarters in the city of mario pulse intend fighting, continues there after a month of relentless efforts by russian led forces against ukrainian troops to secure the key port city. once more, inside that then yes, people public motor, oops, was occupied in 2014 by ukrainian forces during their crack done on separatists in san times. least half of the city has now reportedly been cleared while in the ukrainian capital locals have been covering some of their st. monuments with fund bags to protect them from shelling here is on highlights with heavy fighting, reportedly ongoing,

just kilometers away in western new korean. meanwhile, let's show you the city of lutes. that's where an oil storage facility has gone up in flames. after he reported russian or strike firefighters were seen bustling the flames. there's been no statements as yet on any casualties. they're russian officials previously said they would target sites used by the printing military for its operations, including fuel or dep, owes and civilian infrastructure has been bearing the brunt of the war. people from this village inside that done yet, peoples for public were among those caught in the crossfire. russian lead tripped up taking control of the area which remains heavily contested by retreating ukrainian forces. civilians have been provided with food and shelter while the den, yes, military focuses are mean moving criminal london lines from nearby roads and fields . some of the locals told us it's been

a daily battle just trying to survive. for old women were sitting there and then the showing began. were heard explosions inside the house and all around us. we didn't know where to hide, my gosh. it's also horrible. another news like turkey has stepped in to try media to cease fire in ukraine, delegations from moscow and kia will sit on for talks and it's done bold this week . ahead of the latest rhonda, but sure to be difficult negotiations. presidency lensky is maintain, that he's not prepared to give up any of ukraine's territory or sovereignty. while adding that, he wants peace and the restoration of normal life as soon as possible. in an interview to serbian media surrogate, love roth, as expressed shock at the level of russ a full be in the west, the mid events in ukraine. the russian foreign minister also reiterated that russia's priorities for the new round of peace talks for securing the safety of don bos residence and the demilitarization or ukraine.

weird pearson. we must make sure that the people have done boss will never again suffer the hands of the key if regime we must make sure that the west and native stop trying to acquire ukraine as a physical and military threat against russia. so the ukraine says us to be a country that is constantly militarized, and where the rad tends to place offensive weapons to threaten russia. we need to stop efforts in ukraine to encourage noun, us ideology and practices. both the demilitarization and denot suffocation of ukraine are essential elements of the agreement that we are seeking use this thought, but as you are, the thing that struck me at the current stage was an unprecedented surge. i would even say an explosion of a cargurus, a phobia which awoke, and almost all western stays in which the leaders of the states are actively encouraging and fueling such an obsession which has swept almost all european countries in relation to everything. russian beat, culture, art, education, or just towards russian citizens,

as most of course struck me because it opened up the essence of these archaic rows of phobia. which it turns out has been around for a very long time ago, because it is impossible to awaken such feelings in just one day. so it means they were been carefully hidden, which would, most german energy companies have rejected russia's request to pay for gas in ports in roubles, chancellor, olaf shores has said the remarks come after moscow demanded unfriendly states switch payments to the russian currency. if most german buyers of russian gas will continue to pay for it in euros, in accordance with the currency fixed in their contracts. as of now, russian gas icons for about 40 percent of the use gas imports in response to the mosque was military action in ukraine. the block announced its intention to slush its dependence on russian imaging. it's just on the de liquified natural gas with the u. s. while the russian request for ruba payments has been dismissed by most

european states as quote, blackmail or a breach of contract russia in response to point side, it was washington on the you that sought to stop moscow from using its foreign currency reserves on a global markets usually you, but if you're a refuses to pay in roubles you, what actions will russia take you? we will be dealing with the issues as they arise under these circumstances. how real is the scenario that we will whole gas supplies for sure, we will not be delivering the fuel for free. it's absolutely certain right now it's hardly feasible to engage in charity towards europe. exactly. europe has been struggling to find alternative suppliers with some countries holding talks with gulf states in an attempt to diversify their and g imports. though seen as alternative, the region has not had risen to the occasion, the ease, energy minister in his latest statements question, the prospect of squeezing our russian supplies,

stressing their essential rule on the energy market. well, let's go through that on more with richard berner, the professor at the center for research and accountability governance on sustainability at the monford university. you're very welcome. hire vulnerable richard. our european consumers, as it stands now with the e. u at such odds with moscow over how they're going to pay for gas imports. yes, they are very vulnerable. and not only because the tax component off spending only people spending at the petrol station is extraordinarily high. so much of the, the money to actually paying is a tax that's been living on fuel as a percentage tax. and that's also proportionally, been increasing as the underlying prices have been raised. so that's the 1st thing . and secondly,

it looks like euro wants to stop dealing with russia while actually europe needs russian energy in poles. when you look at a diesel fuel, germany, for example, it seems half of german diesel fuel comes from russia. so they are very, very vulnerable. and let's hope they're not being treated as collateral damage by the, the european leaders and by the us. because it seems to be carried out on their backs . you've got european officials refusing, essentially the pay rubles for at russian gas because they say pre existing contracts, don't a lot of that are don't state that. but president put an interesting thing. he said those countries have proven to be unreliable business partners themselves. you know, we look within the last month, richard sanctions imposed confiscating at russian property,

which by essence belongs to the russian people with all that in mind, all that going on. what's the way i tell this economic deadlock for the you the more technical issue or the contract. i mean i would, i would study those contracts very carefully and i suspect, and they usually would have to start to close for major clauses. if something happens out of the control of russia, then there's certainly the way. and that certainly seems to be the case. so you can make the case whether it's explicitly stated in the close of the contract or not. and also it seems that russia said that it will accept gold in payment and we haven't seen stampede gold and the gold price that also has not reacted. and that would be another alternative. and, and ultimately the rubel has already reacted quite a bit to the,

to this very small move um, letting me put in to demand that since the foreign currency reserves are being essentially seized by the foreign central banks that are supposed to hold them in custody. and therefore, not easily accessible by russia and that instead the rule should be yours. you know, the argument is, well, the sanctions really leave no other option. and the rule has sold since, since that announcement last wednesday. and we're now just broken through 90 roubles to the $1.89 or something at the moment. and so have they reacted quickly last wednesday. and both the rule as some commentators such as myself been recommending they are ready. i would have saved some money. so but coming back to the broader picture and what is the way forward?

i think the europeans, in particular, have to consider their options. and they have to realize that they're paying a very high price for centrally is a us global military strategy that has been put in place quite a while ago. ready visibly from 2014 involving ukraine. just interrupt quite astonishingly. it seems that to be a disconnect or a both that richard, it's almost as if it's the public realize is that more than the governments themselves, but of course it's going to be the people who are a hit hardest. yes, that's right. and then instead disconnect is probably really the actual sort of political structure that we have quite a few countries in europe. where essentially the use turned out to be just a political on nato. and they to is a white obviously, us dominated military alliance. and some countries,

such as germany directly occupied by us troops. and actually as it turns out, not in sovereign states and possibly on the statutes are still in place. and the americans can call the shots. and that may explain that just because if they, the politicians, no matter which party constantly have to check in with the americans, is this ok allowed to do this about which seems to be the situation for the, you know, 70 years. then that would explain why at the moment this gap is so obvious, we're only will say what is going on. you supposed to be the leadership of many of you. you're not looking after european american foreign policy goals and america because doing what he's been doing for quite a while. it says to europe, let's you fight russia let's you impose ball embargoes and let's you. so we think that's a good strategy. i think this gap is getting bigger and that could lead to some

political repercussions. i mean, about time, the legal parties that actually say more clearly, well, europe needs to look after its own. yeah, indeed, we'll see how it plays out. the next few weeks should be interesting. richard, i'm sure we'll try again with you and get your thoughts. thanks for now. the richard berner professor at the center for research and accountability. governance . i'm sustainability at the monford university. thank you very much. or indonesia, which will play host to this year's g 20 gathering of the world's largest economies, is so far resisting pressure from some members to kick russia out of the grip over its actions in ukraine. russia's membership of the g twenty's in question after the u. s. president back plans to expel the country. moscow was already thrown out of the n g 8 for him in 2014, over the referendum in crimea, and rejoining the peninsula with russia. we spoke with russians and buster to

indonesia who told us there are no legal mechanisms to expel russia from the g 20 organization. no government of indonesia has taken quite a balanced position on this crisis. in reality, we don't feel any changes in the position of indonesia towards russia. position of the us reminds me, you know, the ostrich which is varying, it's had in the sand. so it's quite poorly because if they think that they can exclude russia and then don't see russia, the difference being of being a participant of different international for in addition ration will not exist. of course not. how can you so global issues without versus

participation. so this position is absolutely absurd and american. they are a statement from a recent one from the prime minister, australia to scott morrison and said he doesn't want to sit at the same table with a leader of the country that invaded another country. ok, so the 1st candidate to be excluded are the us of course, i understand there is no mechanism is actually to exclude or to free country countries participation in g time tea grouping. and as i mentioned, a part of the united states as there are many countries that are against such measures, we have other guests in the progress speaking about said that very issue saying in fact, the g 20 could become a tool for promoting us lead risk phobia but the world still needs rush as part of

the international community. i think they attempted to transmit this sentiment. i mean sentiment to the international community. and the deep $24.00 rooms will be used as a means of breathing of this. what the united states did is sign that the united states realize that economy extension is not working effectively. so the united states need to take other means to install in russia international community. i think the word is still new to russia. and even though arrest will be, will be excluded from the jeep when be in my opinion,