ah, a with i'm very happy about the referendum it is beautiful. yeah, the shoulders directly with i believe that only with russia we will be able to revive our region, raise the economy medicine education. with the 1st day of voting, wrapping up our t continues its special coverage and the ongoing referendums and don bath oper. oh she and 1st on, on whether to drawing russia despite torture and pain, $55.00 military personnel from russia. and then don bass republic had come back home after the nightmare they went through and ukrainian captivity divided for what

if they beat me with the chair kicked me and hit me with them off. they beat me because of a broken chair. they said your cattle, you broke our chair and they started hitting me on the head again. the jab me with all sorts of needles in my ear and my nose just to mock me. and then or rock a legislator and start holding the u. s. accountable. after american soldiers there allegedly kill a 15 year old girl working in the field with, from long down to the world. this is our to international. i'm rachel robins. and here are the top stories this hour or the 1st day of voting on whether to join. russia has wrapped up that as we bring you are special coverage on the historic referendums and don bass and to other regions. ah,

who's the referendums are being held in 4 areas. as you can see here, we have done ask and they've gone for public as well. as the hearse on, as oper, oci regents now back in 2014 done ask, and they've gone to voted to declare themselves independence after they refused to recognize the coo and key at the new ukranian government, backed by the west. launch a military offensive on the don bass, which is continued to this day. let's take

a look now at pictures from the polling stations in don bass on the 1st day of voting. people say that they have been waiting for this moment for 8 years. here's what the have of the gone for public told us sierra didn't store. i'm sure the citizens of august people's republic will make their choice in favor of joining the russian federation. by making ser choice, we will obtain peace and quiet and we're going back home to our historical borders . this is what is just what we write them. polling stations here come to people, not the other way around. that's all due to safety concerns. now here's how it's organized, there's a queue of people, they enter the bus through the front door, and then over here, there's a makeshift polling booth where people 1st, they sign up over here. then over here they cost the vote. and here's the ann with it with every ballot that has been cost so far. again, this is due to fears that large gatherings of people in well places in traditional,

alongside or around traditional polling stations that they might become targets of attacks of over missile attacks by cave or terrorist acts. even still awesome huddle back in 2014. to be honest. most people had like gums like had been inspired . we had a desire to get away from all of this ban dera stuff. people went to vote for independence with great enthusiasm that were cues, pouting. stations, people wants to come back to their roots, get back to russia. these i years, we've been waiting for this moment. it was, and it's a difficult part, and i would have liked it to have happened back, enjoy hopeful, ancient, but fight decided otherwise. okay. maybe we had to go through everything in order to reach our dream of re unification with the great russia. what i'm very happy about the referendum it is beautiful. the stork, i'm sorry, the law from smith dania, but in 2014,

there was confusion. fear. we didn't understand what was going on, but we hope that there would be taken into rush back that i left her then returned to my family and they were here for all this 8 years. then who experienced confusion and fear. so now we have ho go to the thought, we hope that they will take it. no, i said i december, i felt very positive in 2014, but now i am completely happy. everything is okay. we have been through at all price. nish, novolog must be around the atmosphere was festive back in 2014, and we wanted to re unite with russia today. we finally got it. whipple cheated. those we are returning home, but we have come a long way. but everything has come to a logical conclusion. yet we, the war will finally end the more, but i see the witching. meanwhile, 20 percent of voters have cast their ballots and zapatero she, according to local officials and neighboring her san around 15 percent of people have had their say in the manner this footages from her san and melody. ho bull

wear military and police are ensuring security, sweeping for explosives before residents arrived. but despite the potential threats, people continue to cast their ballots. you have the ssl is the revolution. i believe that only with russia will be able to revive our region, raise the economy, medicine education, revise the industries that her son region was famous for in soviet times and give a new impetus to our economy. i cast my vote for joining in russia. montagnier from omit finally, we are together finally well as hope with the motors excellence high altered for russia for my home, for my mother. last actually young refresher. i want to come back home. i just want to come back home to the lease on it's always been a russian city. they say that for a person, the native language is the one in which his mother read fairy tales for him in childhood. they read to me in russia,

where now had one of the voting stations here, instead of song. these have been set up all over the city. long with these members of the electoral commission are going flat flat house to house collecting people's votes. because despite the fact that already thousands of people in care of san city in the province itself have voted, there's been a lot of intimidation. there been threats acts of terror. and there is ceases, of course bombardment of your song with, with me selves with rockets by the ukrainian military. the ukrainian sud nationalists have also threatened people. they have told them to stay away from voting stations for. busy their own safety taken at face value. it is believed that they want to target these voting stations to keep people away away from the referendum way from expressing themselves nevertheless. so far things have been. com. security has of course been beefed up. there is a lot of tension,

but as i mentioned, thousands have already voted and more and more of those in with every hour several events were held across russia to support the referendums in and on back here you can see the city of camera well in central asha and then over here we have moscow worth thousands of people gathered near red square waving flags and banners . now there was also a rally over here and rose me, which is the capital of the church in republic and southern russia. the events are being attended by representatives of public associations, political parties, and civil rights activists. meanwhile, western countries had condemned their referendums, calling them, i'm democratic. this comes after years of selective policies toward the self determination of people, as archie contributor rachel mars, and explains. western officials clearly don't support these people in ukraine

having the opportunity to exercise their right to self determination is guaranteed under international law. you was about to ukraine, bridget, brink and nato secretary general jens fell to berg, called them quote sham referendums. and the european union's chief diplomat usa burrell, dismissed them as quote, illegal referendums, which are quote, in violation of ukraine's independence sovereignty and territorial integrity and a blatant breach of international law. when territorial integrity comes in conflict with self determination, it's apparently the people's will. that matters most. at least that's what the position was. the western officials had towards costeo's independence. that is, after nato had bombed yugoslavia and carved out kosovo from russian allied serbia, under the pretext of protecting its ethnic minority sounds. a lot like the justification for the referendums now in these ukrainian regions whose people have suffered under kim's attack since 2014. but unlike with the current situation,

ukraine, the international community at that time agreed that coast those minority shouldn't have to live under systemic oppression. today our armed forces joined our nato allies and airstrikes against serbian forces responsible for the brutality and kosovo. what i'm really proud of is what we did in kosovo. i really found it very difficult to watch when people were being killed at pleasure to united states would continue to work with those nations that have not recognized and independent kosovo, to convince them to do so. as quickly as possible. so apparently the western position only favor self determination if it harms their enemy and benefits the west. another example, what about of taiwan decided to hold a referendum to succeed from china tomorrow. it's hard to imagine that the westwood, denounce it, and argue instead that the taiwanese have to respect the one china policy that the west supports. all, all egging on taipei provoking beijing and using taiwanese chinese relations and

tensions as a pretext to rock up sales for the u. s. military. industrial complex. referendums are all equal in the eyes of the west. the democracy exercise by catalonia, in its bid for independence in 2017 from spain, was denounced by most of the you under the spanish constitution. yesterday's vote to cut the lonia was not legal. countries like france, italy, germany and the u. k. were more interested at the time in what a vote in favor of independence for catalonia could mean for their own countries as they struggled to contain independence movements on their own territories. in other words, these people over here are fighting for their own democratic self determination. but how does that affect me? that's what they were doing. as for madrid, it came down to a question of revenue loss as colonia, with just 16 percent of spain's population. also counts for 19 percent of its g d p . another referendum may be lurking on the horizon in scotland as separate

a sentiment as festered since edinburgh voted to reject independence in 2014. but the u. k. 's newest prime minister list trust isn't keen on permitting a 2nd round. perhaps she's concerned that the result won't be the same. if i am elected as prime minister, i will not allow another. independent trust brings up the notion of family, but apparently isn't interested in acknowledging similar family style bonds that link the rus of phone ukrainian regions to russia. the western hypocrisy and double standards of defending democratic principles to self determination only if and when it suits them, hasn't escaped the attention of the scottish leadership. if she governs as she has campaigned over the summer, she will be a disaster, not just for scotland, but for all of the key. there's a tendency to denigrate or block referendums that don't suit the western agenda. but when the irish vote to ratify the lisbon treaty,

that is the use constitution establishing a centralized leadership and foreign policy failed the 1st time. well that didn't prevent them from being allowed to vote a 2nd time to secure the desired result. similarly, the dutch voted to enter a referendum in 2016 against the you having closer linked to ukraine. but that didn't prevent the country's parliament for voting against the people's will. a year later, apparently it was enough to say that, well, hey, they were asked. so given the tendency of western officials to cherry pick the referendums, they support or don't, in accordance with their political agendas, while they're hardly in a position of high moral authority to be telling anyone, seizing the opportunity for self determination, what is or isn't legitimate professor at the institute of european studies and belgrade stephen guy edge told us that the western reaction to the referendum

should not matter to russia. and especially the people who are determining their future. i don't see what kind of other sanctions are going to be imposed. i mean, west is fully involved in a proxy war. it is arming one of the sides heavily and i think that there will be the increased protest similar to what we've seen in 2014 with the premium case. but i don't really see any kind of escalation that we haven't seen so far. of course, the west will be very disappointed and there will be a lot of a lot of, i would say, a vein barking by the politicians that are already discredited within their own societies. but i don't believe that russia and especially people who

live in these areas, should be particularly worried about the western reaction. i think that they should be concentrated on the future. i had them and rebuilding our lives and of course of the infrastructure that was shattered. and of course li, rebuilding our functioning society off trauma that started out with the euro. my done, if not even with the breakup of the soviet union in 1991 will keep you updated with the latest news as saturday marks the 2nd day of voting for millions of residents. ah, finally, after a long separation from relatives military personnel from russia and the don mass republics, who been in new premium captivity returned phone r k 's. maria,

for notion to talk to some of the service men who shared their stories of being tortured a happy day for what had been some very anxious families as 55 military personnel from russia and the dunbar. republics, sons and husbands, father and brothers, who had long been held in ukraine in captivity, have come back home, fight zebra storms. either he is in life that they return my son to me. thanks everyone. god bless everyone. we are proud of him. we were afraid to lose him. not that we believed we knew that he would return. we prayed every morning and every evening the whole city was waiting for him. every one was waiting for him. all the relatives, his wife was very fori. we were very worried. it's the latest and so far, the largest prisoners of war exchanged between moscow in kiev since the beginning

of the russian offensive in february and both sides a hail and in a success summer. the most important thing is that they didn't leave us there. when we were there, there was a sense that no one wanted us in our country, but you see how it turned out. our guys quickly took us away quickly, pulled a sound among the 215 key of prisoners. the allied forces traded for the men were 5 notorious as old battalion commanders. but it was a freedom at any price steal them. they said that no one was worried about you and your country will not exchange you except for us. but we believed that would be an exchange. we'd just believe, of course, i'm happy that i am in russia. i would like to thank those who were involved in the exchange that it happened when i hope that the rest of all people we taken out of that and they will also be at home at the most important thing for me now is to see my family friends, wife, i haven't seen her since january 1st, but we signed our marriage certificate and i just left right away. sometimes i

talked to her via video link, but basically i haven't seen her in almost a year. 10 of the many foreigners who have been fighting on kia side were also released 5 bridge citizens to americans and fighters from the rocco, sweden and croatia. some of the released prisoners who spent months in captivity talk about torturing humiliation and also confirmed that more and more foreigners are fighting on ukraine's side. and thus, the yellows, dubuque, yes, they stood armed with clubs from the very beginning. they began to beat me with a baton and used electric shocks with them. then with every incorrect answer or action, i said or did they shocked me beat me with a baton on my legs until i had bruises. vernon threw up, understood, why the 40th crew, they beat me with a chair, kicked me and hit me with the mom. they beat me because of a broken chair. they said here, cattle you broke our chair and they started hitting me on the head again. much the japanese with all sorts of needles, my ear and my nose just to mock me crash. but the more on the home of the road, they threatened me with a knife, then they threw me into

a pickup truck and we drove off somewhere. another 15 people ran up there and they started taking pictures with me that they might look there. they caught an orc and occupier took pictures and film to videos. they lifted me by the head and took pictures of it. i thought it was clear from their voices that there were not only ukrainians. there is a foreign speech, was heard. arabic speech was her home after that they took pictures with me there while they continued to beat me to put a knife to my eyes, they put a knife to my groin. he said we will cut everything off of you. now if you do not confess, phonemic with the holes, they also explain why capturing members of the russian military, and he's such a desired trophy for those fighting for kiya expense thought. and that's is the bottom line is that they are nancy's not the armed force, denounces, received money for the military prisoners, for surgeons. it's about $300.00 for officers. after thousands liang, all those former prisoners released during this recent exchange are currently being treated in various russian hospitals. if military dr. permissions decide the our

feet, the service men may soon return to the front lines. raving ocean on naughty moscow re and a rocky legislator has caught on the country's authorities to hold the u. s. accountable for the killing of a 15 year old girl, allegedly had by a stray bullet fired by an american soldier. he says, this islands on the issue is disrespectful and that the nearby weapons range should be shut down. or to the teenage girl was killed by a bullet fired during u. s. military exercises near they base outside of baghdad. the u. s. embassy has not bother to issue any official apology for the in just incident the death which occurred as a result of the use of life rounds. your military drill, snow residential neighborhoods, exhibits an outrageous disregard for the iraqi blood and a blatant disrespect for the country sovereignty. the incident occurred earlier

this week on a farm situated near the baghdad international airport, where american military forces regularly conduct drills, family and friends are convinced that us soldiers are to blame for the tragedy. then of houses in the vicinity of the shooting rage. and there is no amity between her family and then any one in the area is on the army soldiers a station outside baghdad airport, sammy dot army, and she got shots were harvest investable in order to tell them on the market, secure, she'll wildly and, and that's how parents, children, will that all they wanted to do was to leave in the rock peacefully. but that was in vain. there's an indian rings in the middle of our village shop, a repeal dozens of times about as displaces of populated area with the residents, farmers and their livestock. oh ever. we got no responses from the authorities except for cause to lead area. we don't like out via we endured a lot because our intensity of the shooting, which kept us locked in our homes. recently,

i lost my brother who's left 7 children orphans and now i've lost my granddaughter . here. the case brings up the double standards in the western media wish and contrast to the coverage of a recent killing of a young woman a neighboring a. ron have ignored the death of the teenager and a rock co director of the international action center. sarah flanders says that the location of this incident makes it even more significant. this is on ending its outrageous. and this latest killing of a young, 15 year old student working in her father's field, is just the latest absolute outrage. most outrageous that took place in korea. now that is the site of the notorious torture of prison with a huge us grace and a giant prison camp for iraqi prisoners. people around the world saw

those who renders pictures of what happened in that prison. the fact that they didn't close it down the base continues and they continued live fire range. it's really passed fine for us to hear about the u. s. military has been in iraq since 2003 when america intervened under the pretext of combating terrorism. the country's prime minister spoke out the un, where he said that the presence of us troops in jeopardize as a rock and must be curtailed dr. either i reiterate the iraq schools on for its territories not to be used under the pretext of combating terrorism. oh, protecting the national security of other countries in a manner that endangers our security and stability of iraq stresses the need to respect the principles enshrined in the united nations charter and the rules of

international law and international relations. the respect for the sovereignty of states, us have been forced out of countries that they were occupied by a very powerful people's movements. but will they leave on their own? will they leave because of a resolution? i don't think so. and their determination to stay in iraq in syria to threaten the whole region, years after every demand that they leave. they're not claiming they're not fighting terrorism. they are a terrorist force. and they are completely on accountable for the crimes that they submit. and the crimes that they submitted for years are still $2500.00 us food. tens of thousands of us military contractors who operate in a completely lawless way. and, and yet this is after every demand by the iraqis,

that the u. s. lead. so i think the demand should be raised for accountability, where we've us respond. they don't respond with accountability, anywhere in the world for their crimes. china is accusing the u. s. have beth to claiming its been a legally exporting syrian oil. women, so many wooden. where's the u. s. and other countries to store unlawful military stationing and actions in syria? still imposing unilateral sanctions on syria. sto stating oil and grain from the country and give the syrian people that true human rights. freedom and dignity. china's ministry of foreign affairs says that the us take syrian oil every day, damaging its economy. the country produces iran, $80000.00 barrels per day, but reports say that us forces still over 80 percent of that amount on a daily basis. meanwhile,

more than 14000000 syrian people find themselves in dire need of humanitarian aid. struggling to meet their daily needs. gender shoe, a senior fellow at the pan goal institute, says that syria is now facing an acute crisis. a fact that the west dismisses this by this dire situation. the u. s. doesn't care much about the, you know, the people in that country build the active to steal the oil and also grain from that country. so that's really something i was a lot of people just beyond the comprehension. but i think mostly because of the dominance of the us media, the dominance of us. let us langley media by the u. s. u. k. you know, from canada, from australia and european countries to so when it is something above us, you know, many european countries, the u. s. allies will sometimes simply shift their attention to something else.

ignoring what's going on in theory. i like, oh, it does happen. it doesn't because it is not happening. i'm not looking at that. so somehow there's a lack of attention from the national media. remember, even the u. n. is austin for the tension from the global power. we look at the us be, continue to have a strong military pregnancy, this country without being invited by the rent government under the audio from the country even growing from the country and the imposing unilateral function on this for nation. so this is, this does require much, much more attention from the international randa, on this issue. and over to gaza. we're an investigative report commission. my facebook parent company meta has been released which states that the free speech of palestinian users is being violated. the pro was called following widespread

complains about facebook and instagram monitoring of content during the violence between israel and gaza in may of last year. met is actions in may 2021 appear to have had an adverse human rights impact on the rights of palestinian users to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, political participation and non discrimination. and therefore, on the ability of palestinians to share information and insights about their experiences as they occurred. the clashes and may of 2021 triggered by israel evicting families from a neighbourhood in east jerusalem. saw $256.00 palestinians killed, including more than 60 children as israel launched airstrikes. many palestinians took the social media to raise awareness, but found that their posts were deleted and that pro palestinian hashtags were being suppressed. meta claims that there was no intentional bias but admits

a great deal of work still needs to be done. the israel employees commissioner, meanwhile, wants a more drastic rethink. this is already wool. the social media networks were the ones that drove people out. i'm talking about a broad shut down of the networks, put out com everything down when the situation is come open back up. we are a democratic country, but there is a limit. a garza base activist believes the platform deliberately restricts palestinian activists freedom of speech while others are allowed. i'm sure, therefore, the emitter announced is not something surprising. we did. we did not surprised it because we know that the 1st spoke, felicity lake is against the policy and content of from like too long ago. and we know that the palestinian and the pro palestinian activist frequently

held or held. we can say some campaigns on social media regarding this issue which has restricting the palestinian like accounts on social media especially for spoke and regarding the like restricting the policy on content. and we know that the facebook is a platform or is supposed to be a platform where the, the people can express themselves and express their issues their folds, if freely and safely. and actually it is. i mean, i don't say that it is not, but when it comes to the palestinian content, like we're going to say follow like another or other rules to what the, the power steering content and the policy and activist we can say accounts or social media. that's all for now. be sure to check out our t v dot com for all the latest breaking news and updates. we'll see you right back here.