russia has destroyed the american economy. you so there's your boomerang surf with western pressure over india's neutral stance on the ukraine conflict. escalades as us president joe biden holds a virtual summit with indian prime minister. no raindrop mowdy pakistan's parliament elect the former opposition leader to replace alto prime minister iran con minutes after legislators from his party resigned. con, says his successor is corrupt and he is the victim of the u. s. backed coup with intense fighting continues and the battle from are you bold as dumbass forces? now say they have mostly taken control of the cities port. meanwhile, archie follows a tank battle near the cities as of the st. feel factory, a strong hold of you pinion nationalist troops

with promotional material, calling the killing of russian troops spreads in ukraine. one viral video depicts a woman in a field flitting a russian children's throat with a sickle in a style resembling that of the terrorist group. adamic stick with broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow. this is our international. i'm john thomas. certainly glad to help you with us and western powers, especially the u. s. have been increasing their pressure on india for it's refusal to move against russia. joe biden held an online summit with india's prime minister and the red dr. modi on monday after which the white house made clear that for india, it's quote, not in their interest to buy more russian oil. the president both conveyed that we

are here to help them diversify their means of importing oil. again, our, the imports from the united states are already significant for much bigger than the imports that they get from russia. and we, of course the president conveyed very clearly that it is not in their interest to increase that for more or less cost live to our t corresponded, killed mop and in new york. caleb, what was the key issues during the us? india talks while it was quite an exhaustive meeting, many topics were discussed. but one recurring theme we heard from the us side of the discussion was us official telling india what they feel is in india of interest, that we just reject saki, talking about what she thought was in the best interest. it's not a secret that india has greatly increased the amount of oil is buying from russia, despite not violating us sanctions on russia. they are increasing the amount of oil

they're buying from russia. us oil giants are not thrilled about that. here's how india is, foreign minister responded when asked about these words from the states and us feelings about what the country's best interest is. if you're looking at, i know g purchases from russia, i would suggest that your attention should be focused on europe, which probably we do buy some energy which is necessary for our energy security. but i suspect looking at the figures, probably total purchases for the month would be less than what europe doesn't and up to now the arms tray and weapons purchases was also a very big point of discussion during the meetings. and there have been strong us feelings about india's purchasing of weapons from russia. here's what lloyd austin said in the lead up to today's meeting. we believe that it's not in their best

interest to continue to invest in russian equipment. and our requirement going forward is that they downscale types of equipment that they're investing in and, and look to invest more in the types of things that will make us continue to be compatible. moscow accounts for more than half of the weapons that are sold to india and appears the united states would prefer that they buy weapons from the usa and not from russia. and this fits the theme around the oil. and this seemed to ultimately be the overwhelming message that us leaders we're giving to india throughout the meeting. it is in your best interest. they're telling them that on behalf of the united states, united states is telling india what they believe is. and it's interested in your best interest by your oil from us, by your weapons from us and do as we say. so, quite, quite a meeting. we'll be seeing more of an international reaction in the coming days. i

can mop and staying across the store for us there on the state side. thanks for that. appreciate it. or now a defense reporter at the indian newspaper. the hindu explains the topics discussed at the talks as well. there was a lot of criticism on the comments on in the budget on trying to buy you some more of oil from i showed a discount i was offering you actually buys about one percent what the mobile one or 2 percent died from russia compared to this you know, brought 15 percent more island gas from russia than what it did the previous months . so again, when the highlights though, on one side because of the on this aspect of got a lot going on, this issue was sitting in the bank again, putting some new context. actually this under criticism,

rest about 60 percent of indian forces construed of russian equipment and maybe because due to the pipeline. so for instance, $400.00 or forget stance again, simon rifles surely. and so on main holes, he does a lot of these are going to be fighting with government. they will take greatest negotiation so that oh, but i didn't know that dependence will continue. i mean, you start something is just going on like, you know, moving toward bio and i think that's just what pakistan's parliament has elected a new prime minister, shabazz sharif, who is widely seen as a western friendly politician. the appointment to follow the ouster at the weekend . of pm iran con, who lost in a no confidence vote on allegations that he was mis managing the economy. con says sharif is corrupt and he's been the victim of the u. s. backed crew. a man who has

one corruption case of 16000000000 rupees. and another corruption case of 8000000000 rupees against him. for that person to be selected and elected is the prime minister. there cannot be a bigger insult to the country. shabazz sharif was 3 times the chief minister of poon job, pakistan's largest and richest province. and he led the opposition campaign to remove him run cotton. he is the younger brother of now was sharif a former 3 time prime minister. they come from a wealthy family dynasty and both have been mirrored in corruptions, candles while in politics with the elder brother having been sentenced to 10 years in prison. and now live in exile in london. she was sharif, has already bound to get pakistan's economy back on track, seeking to improve relations with the u. s. and neighboring india. i

just minutes before the vote, more than 100 of the lawmakers there from iran cons, party resigned in mass from parliament and protest of a government by his political rivals. tens of thousands of cons. supporters have taken to the streets around the country to back of the outgoing leader as con and fit. the motion against him was rooted in a u. s. back. conspiracy. us has denied those allegations and says it respects focused on rule of law. earlier my colleague nikki aaron discussed the gym. se of the country's new prime minister with re max on a boy who had interviewed him, ron kon, ahead of his recent visit to moscow. the new interim prime minister because she is appointed until the next to luck. he will be in power for a couple of months, but he comes from a very rich family. he is a younger brother of nova sharif, who served as a sense of reminiscence. 3 times was ousted one. he also had the corruption

charges pressed against him before and he's now residing in london and where he remains involved in pakistan is internal politics. there speculations that for example, like a sounds corruption, some bureau a may bring some charges against the new prime minister. and it also remains to be seen what the army thinks about him. because traditionally dean of os family has had the somewhat contested relationship with the army. and as the saying goes, there are many countries that have an army, but there's only $11.00 army that has a state. and this is pakistan because the role of pakistan is military in the, in the politics of the country has always been pretty substantial. i remember not so long ago watching your interview with him, ron john, fantastic interview, of course. so you probably have a better insight into the and his character, his personality. it looks like he's going to fight this. absolutely. there is no

doubt about it. and you've already shown the videos of enormous crowds that call us in as momma by then some other cities. he has a lot of popular support. he's already said that he is going to fired till the end, and he's likely to remain a formidable force in, in the opposition, and perhaps will run them the next elections as well in birmingham himself said that his political faith or the current political faith is the result of a 4 in aided coo and he specifically accused the united states. uh, madeline kiva. mentioned one specific official donald lee who is a system a secretary of state in charge of. busy i'm south and central asian affairs, a man who's been, i, was work the lot in our region. and that there are lots and lots of speculations that on this ousting of enron and has

a lot to do with pakistan. making its foreign policy far more multi vectors and trying not to distance itself from the united states. they still are in favor of far strong ties with america, but also branching out to china, russia and the rest of the i had a chance to interview him last months and i hope we can run the one of the eclipse from that interview. libby the school back in history, or when the gold war was up, you know, riveting the whole of the world the world was do i did a did blocks like a son moved into the united states. we became part of the block in the cold war with the us. and there actually stood neutral, but it was very close to the soviets. now when i look back, i think initially august, i needed help because of when we became independent, we way bob rushed. the millions of refugees and bug is done, we needed help. but you know, beyond 10 years or so,

we shouldn't then be non aligned, independent country. us stood on feet, not rely on a we became part of a block because we got foreign aid. when you look back, foreign aid is a curse for a country because you do not fix your systems. you do not raise your never revenue . you don't increase your export. you rely on hand out and it stops a country evolving and developing and becoming self reliant. so the world being divided into cold war blocks and bug a sun becoming part of a block. when you look back at it stopped us from developing as a country. it does seem as though it run cons. popularity. a feel like with the west really did a u turn after he came to moscow in february and met with president pizza. and i suppose it went downhill even before that. and he himself is pretty open

about it. he said that it was important for him and for pakistan to have an independent and multi doctoral foreign policy, which includes ties with china, ties with russia, a joint attempt to do something about dan, his son. he was very, very passionate about it. and he was also very open that packet, some reliance on the united states and, you know, cost pakistan a lot and gave very little i'm in, it's not the secret that they had the americans to centrally look the way. and it allowed pakistan to develop a nuclear bomb in return for pakistan is support for the arming of mcgahey, dean in, in afghanistan, during the, this soviet campaign there. and from then on pakistan to play the very active role in the american lads war on terror. but it meant ha, tens of thousands of dad for pakistan, he lost a lot of lost revenues. a lot of last infrastructure. and when i was in pakistan

last time, you know, with the questions that many people an analyst. and, you know, officials are asking, and you know, it's sort of a rhetorical question, but they're essentially saying that they've done a lot for america. but what has america done for us? and they're not too many eloquent answers to that question. ah, the battle continues to rage. in marble, as dawn by us forces reported they have taken control of the cities port. meanwhile, the russian military is advancing on the as of steel factory. a strong hold of ukrainian nationalist forces are to you cause fun, but because you have reports from the ground. aah! god with delivery of dust or blood, which is the last frontier before the da feel good with national may

with far of all of the size, these buildings are amongst the last still held by ukrainian nationalists on the east bank of mario bo, outside the industrial zone they are also a nest of radical nationalists, snipers and machine guns. hooley tanks could reliably dislodge these buildings. fortunately are devoid of civilians. more than a 100 still held. as human shields by nationalists have taken refuge in a nearby school school number 56. the tanks are careful not for far at it. the people inside are among the last held hostage by ukrainian nationalists. or if you were speaking about the situation in mary, you, par, the residential parts of the city have been liberated, some individual pockets of resistance remain, such as sleepers and other troops hiding in basements and multi story buildings.

but it isn't over yet. fierce combat, most of its close quarters, still rages across mario bull. unlike regular ukrainian military troops in the city who have surrendered in their hundreds, the nationalists show no such eagerness to end. this is with the eval filica. so he'll be back with you, as you can see with which these tight is replacing is once withdrawing to the rearm. resupply and take

a short break action here. those are then with the liberation of the last few residential areas. still held by radicals. a new phase will begin a full out assault on the vast as of steel and iron works complex and they're, the nationalists will have no more civilians to hide behind. where i'd gaz the of r t for mario bull, ukrainian official, say russia allegedly used chemical weapons in marbles, citing reports by as of nationalist forces, but russian troops used a toxic substance of unknown origin against ukrainian troops and civilians in the city. the russian military has not commented on those allegations. meanwhile, a convent was destroyed in showing in the village of the don yet republic, where locals save the ukrainian army, has been firing on residential areas. ukrainian uniforms and ammunition were

abandoned, as the troops retreated amid intense fighting among described, what seemed to be phosphorus, bombs being used by a ukrainian military. the weapon is internationally banned because of its rapidly burns through the body, causing an extremely painful death. michelin began at the beginning of march on march 14th a bomb. it looks like phosphorus because everything shone and burned hit the house of our father, the founder of this monastery. the next day it hit our monastery. russia has opened a criminal case into ukrainian promotional materials calling for the killing of russian soldiers and being spread on social media. the videos resemble propaganda footage by the terrorist group is on mac state. now here you can see the screenshots taken from the video which we cannot show because of its extremist content. the video declares threats to russian soldiers made an ukranian with english subtitles. while speaking, the actress pretends to cut the throat of

a man impersonating a russian soldier. it's not the 1st time anti russian statements take a gruesome form in ukraine. a tv presenter earlier pledged to kill russian children and said he agrees with adolf eichmann. one of the main organizers of the holocaust and a head of volunteer medical project said that he ordered to castrate captured russian soldiers. both later backtracked after public outrage, journalist and blogger, and historian, your butcher mileage, says the worst part of this is no reaction from western media. what struck me about it is not, and this is going to sound weird, but it's not that somebody in ukraine might make this because i've seen some really horrible stuff coming out of their over the past 10 years. but that nobody in the western media, no one at all, even questioned. it even raised a said wait, i mean it guys, this is problematic. this is bad. know that i look not nobody said anything about

it. because again, by this logic adopted in west, nothing anybody in ukraine does can be wrong. and russians can do no. right? and so there's an objectively existing incentives for ukrainian nationalists to create this kind of literally isis like propaganda. because they're not going to get cut off called out for it. nobody in the west, nobody in their eyes and sponsors. he's actually going to mind. and that's why they're doing it. and maybe maybe they feel they've gotten a little too far this time. but again, there's been no backlash in the west it's, it's just a that's to me, the truly atrocious part. because honestly, i've been expecting this kind of stuff from the followers to step on monday. but didn't i was i thought that there were decent people in the west who we call it out and there don't seem to be any archie has received

a voice recording of someone who has reported to be a former ukrainian politician and said to have been killed in the ukrainian city of butcher back then kiev was quick to cast all the blame on russia. but the recording apparently predicted exactly this, that the politicians eventually killing would be pinned on moscow. earlier. my colleague nikki aaron got more details on this from don quarter. well, this recording that we got our hands on appears to show a conversation between russian forces and former ukrainian peoples deputy alexander or job ski. now to remind our viewers or zowalski was an outspoken, the pro russian politician who lived in the town of boucher and on march 27th. the ukrainian authorities confirmed that he had been killed and of course, accused russian troops of being responsible for that. his relative say that unfortunately he was killed right in front of his wife and his sister, and he is now buried in the courtyard of his home. but going back to that audio recording, it appears to portray russian troops actually insisting that they evacuate or off.

you from the area because he's now considered a traitor to specifically ukrainian nationalist forces. so let's take a listen to a snippet of that audio recording. we just wanted to just which was i'm so used to be able to pick this up. it was almost like he was supposed to eat, which means just that.

yeah, yeah, the. ready ice cream associates if it was correct and this you, which is why did you because you only. ready as we heard from that audio recording, or shasky in the end decided not to leave his home despite the threat of being attacked after his town of butcher was reclaimed by key. and a key of ended up accusing russia of war crimes. without putting forward any hard evidence, let's not forget or job. he was an outspoken opponent of the neo nazis in his country and also collaborated with the russian forces to bring the humanitarian aid

and to bootstrap after it had fallen under russian control. so another thing that he said before he died in that audio recording is that he had a gun and that he was going to defend himself and his family, if it came to it, done the recent deadly missile attack on the train station in the dawn bus that you've kind of tours was also quickly blamed on russia, but there wasn't an investigation most. right, this is just another example of how key of has been blaming russia for everything under the bright blue sky without putting forward any hard evidence. when the cremmit tourist train station was hit by a missile last week, he did the same thing, but it actually turned out that this missile was a tortuga you missile that was only in service and is still only in service in the ukrainian military in terms of this conflict, the russian military doesn't use this missile. and then the italian journalist even took a picture of the serial number on the casing of that very missile. proving that it was part of the same missile family that ukraine's been using against the done yet

can lugens over the past 8 years, even before the russian special operation began. so that report made its rounds across italian media and basically showed the world that it's important not to jump to conclusions in times of war and intense presidential election in france with just to we to go before the final round as the incumbents. menu micron faces off for a tight race against right wing challenger marine le pen. one pole found 34 percent of dropped candidate is looked melanie songs that voters would support the incumbent. my clock, while 21 percent of them would favor le pen. at the same time the vast majority of right wing, eric is a more voters would backlit pen and only 8 percent would cast their vote for micron . for more on this, we can cross live to dennis franciscan, a co coordinator of activities abroad for la pens, political party. thanks for being with us here on our international reading.

there's just a lot to get your mind around the story just about a 3 percent gap between the incumbent micron and right when contender marine the pen was this expected results? well, it's going to be hard for sure. however, she had never been high and very high expectation, because don't forget that my cohen pools, you know, for the past few years has been very, very low. so i think what we're going to seem 2 weeks is also a lot of people who do not want him again for another 5 years. and i'm convinced that those people will then vote for marine instead of of, you know, another 5 years with macro. so what's the mood inside of the party? i mean, the pens party has to be pretty stoked, i guess over the results of this 1st round. yeah, i mean we, we very happy and we were expecting, you know, to, you know, to be, you know, about level, marine has been an extraordinary campaign. you know, for the past few months, she has shown that she can be the next leader. so we are,

we're happy, but also very serious on, on how to handle those, those next 2 weeks. we still have to convince, you know, more people, as you mentioned, we have those 23 points that we need to gain. so she's definitely going to continue to develop our ideas about those other people. the other candidates are now encouraging their supporters to vote for one of the 2 leading candidates. do you expect a massive influx of voters one way or the other? again, i'm not sure if the voters will, will listen automatically to you know, to what the jenny would have said. because again, my course has been despised by, you know, by a lot of people. and i think we underestimate the resentment that the french people have against this president. you know, he has been and i remember, but 5 years ago he was sold by everybody has being, you know, a genius, you know, someone is going to save the world pretty much and has been just like of failures

and flaws after flaws. so it's facing a lot of resentment. that's why i'm not, i'm very cautiously optimistic, but i've to be honest with you, i think we haven't seen yet, you know, the full results and i'm very cautious about those full thing that is going to win the model. what and cautious you should because that gap between micron and lupin and that 1st round was very narrow. what do you think that tells us about the mood among the french public? the pulls of, i've said, you know, for, for a, for few years now that this is what we're going to have. we can have looked at in my call. so i think that we're not very surprised to see that. however, what was surprising is middle show who actually represent the extreme left and that's, that's what we not sure about because they have spent millions party has been, you know, those plus years criticising my home like very fiercely. so that's why i'm not so

sure that you know, the majority of his voters will for him when they say, you know, like, don't vote for me or in the fan i, i tend to believe that we're going to have another big surprise, you know, from the standpoint, interested to get your thoughts on what happened in ren following the 1st round of results, a lot of people rushed to the streets in the french town of rent to protest against both candidates. what are your thoughts on that type of a protest if you will, everybody is allowed to protest, you know, it's a free country. the problem is, like most of those protests are, you know, they did just here to, you know, to break things and to create more violence. so, i mean, you know, obviously i'm ok for, you know, for people to, to express their feelings and to explore their discontent. but there is limits. and unfortunately where we have some in france, you know, you know, more and more for the, for the 1st few years, is that protests, or actually is mixed with, with violence. and that's something that, you know,

we're not okay with now, do you expect this election specifically to get even more heated? because it's so narrow. yes, because they are, you know, macros, people already know starting to use the same old fashion. you know, the good guy versus the bad guys, and they starting already to say that, you know, she's an extremist and that if she's in power, you know, the world and basically that does the storyline, the trying to do, trying to establish rain at the same thing they define years ago, but we know, but it will prepare to it. and the good thing is less and less people actually are buying the story line. so i will be interesting to see what microns team you know, what, what angle the going to use. you know, against the guest depend this time she has done a very good campaign and she has, she's now reassuring a lot of people.