ah, for a there ever random's in the dawn about republics and to break away regions of ukraine have ended with all 4 voting to join russia. video evidence emerges, showing what's been described as unprecedented damage to the north stream pipeline system with german media, claiming possible sabotage. also ahead just to just even use this situation has not changed. it's a complete sham from western countries. russian president vladimir, who says the west of broken promises for ukrainian grain to go to countries and need as only

a small fraction of the supplies went to africa with, from moscow to the world. this is our international. i'm rachel blevins and here are the top stories of this hour. we begin this our with our special coverage of the referendum and the don bass republics, and to break away ukrainian regions to determine whether they will join russia. voting has now ended and the results have been announced. ah,

the final results of the referendum had come in for ukraine's break away zap hiroshi and her song regions with 93.11 percent and 87 percent, respectively voting in favor of joining russia. final results for the august republic indicate 98 percent of people who voted for joining russia. with the don ask republic showing 99 percent voting in favor. our cheesy worship on our reports from the gods republic where the referendums, results had just been announced. finally, the results they have come and more than 98 percent of people here have chosen to say yes to russia and no to ukraine. the results were announced by the head of the against people's republic learned positioning himself. now we did have a chance to talk to the head of the republic himself, and we asked him about what emotions he feels right now that everything has been

resolved. and what's next for the republic. the way to day we have reached our ultimate goal. we have achieved what we all wanted so much. i think that the president of the russian federation in the entire russian nation should take the decision and accept us into the russian federation. and then we'll come hard, painstaking work to further strengthen the russian federation. we will work for the good of our great country, which is why all this began the future for which everything began back in 2014. next week. already he will be traveling to russia to see of latimer potent, the president of course, and well to discuss the results of the referendum, obviously, bidding on behalf of all the of more than a 1000000 people here who showed up to the polling stations rolled tooth. so that russia recognizes their choice and again, this choice wasn't an easy one, not in terms of as to where their hearts were. but rather keith did everything in its power to intimidate the people here into staying home and to not voting. it has

been shelling little against people's republic relentlessly. in the past 5 days, while the for the 5 days when the referendum was taking place, it was shelling polling stations and polling booths. people had to interrupt the voting and go to and go hide and bomb shelters. just to stay safe, just to keep on going with their daily lives and no matter what they still showed up, they showed up in hundreds of thousands. again, the attendance is also very, very close to a 100 percent. and so this is what they did. this is that what they did despite the shelling, despite everything being against their odds. now the authorities here, of course, they try to make it easy and as safe as possible for the people here. for example, for the 1st 4 days, there were no stationary polling stations. the one that were used to instead, buses were taking members of the election committee door to door almost. or if they were visiting different neighborhoods and regions and remote villages. so that

people had, could have a chance to vote and to have their say without attracting and without participating in large crowds of people. but all this bloodshed, all this violence spearheaded by cave, it failed to crush the spirits of the locals. here we talk to some of them and they shed what this moment means for them. no, it was such a bitter feeling when your mother land turns its back on you. well, the land you it always thought to be your mother land. it's very sad. you got the one yet. i am so angered by this. but this is wool. that's all i can say when you know crazy. we aren't living in ukraine. we are living in the la guns republic. and we do hope they won't be able to get the hands on us. as the head of the don ask republic has just announced the results of the referendum and declared that the don bass is coming home. those? yes, my friends. the referendum has finally happened. i can't say i didn't believe it would happen. i believed and still believe in don bass. we've all wanted this for

a very long time. we dreamed about it in 2014 and then we realized that dreams about it, but we made history. these are historic days. we are reuniting with our great homeland with russia. i know what you and i have been through what we continue to go through. now we are not alone, but certainly feels like after the holiday, it's very fast. if you're as the results. kate results of the referendum came in just before midnight on a tuesday, mal the head of the nest peoples of republic is a speaking right now. just behind me. i was asked to be a little quieter while i'm speaking with you, but definitely the mood and here is a very festive and just like was said 99.23 percent of the voters said yes. in the referendum, she too, had joining with russia. now this referendum was taking place over the last 5 days

of oral those days. we had some mol pile referendum, a group. so walking from a home to home from the portland building to an apartment building of how calling on that people to come down and voter that was done outside of the pulling stations for safety reasons. because ukrainian nationalist continue shelling the dentist people's republic of course has shelling results in a tragedy said people have been killed over the age. people have been wounded, of course a critical civilian infrastructure was damaged as well as gsa i key if a regime of forces or trying to do everything possible in order to disrupt this voting process. now despite all that voting took place that sir, knowledge was actually unbelievable. at least a 97 percent of the population came out to vote. and now we know the results

as well. now i walked around with these mobile referring to groups as well. and obviously i spoke to the people who were voting and why and you know, they were doing it absolutely freely. not like the western media portrayed it to be as if they were forced to vote in this referendum, you know, under the barrel of a gun. absolutely. not now, i suppose many of those people can say you can hear their opinion about this referendum right now. i didn't come down the road. no one forces us to come. you can see it yourself. people come voluntarily, i'm so happy i'm about to cry. you blocker live people are crying with joy. there were people from the russian control territories in ukraine for said this there has finally come. i'm so glad i leave to seal this day. i am really happy if come

a long way and have been waiting for it for ages. so the counting process in this referendum has now and did so. however, russian, the former president's and currently deputy ahead of the country is a security council meeting id video of said much earlier in the day that the referendums have taken place. and so he said to everybody who was participating, welcome to russia and how this is exactly what we have heard. i here in this referendum information center, as well as the results were announced, people started chanting nathan sy, room chanting russia, russia, russia, people started hugging each other, and of course the atmosphere was very festive. now, don't ask and look gone. sca independence at republics are and now waiting on the

official decision from russia while is up our osha and i here so on region which have elected to succeeds. and so it has several ties. oh, with ukraine are now also waiting on the decision of the russian authorities when they will decide to accept these new territories into the russian federation. around one and a half 1000000 people had cast their votes and the darnedest republic by the end of the 4th day of voting in logan's republic. the latest data shows the turn out exceeded 90 percent on the hearse on ends. oper, oci regions the turn out was roughly the same as $77.00 and around 90 per cent. respectively. we spoke to the president of the bricks, international forum who came to the don bass as an international observer. and she says the mood of the people there contradicts the western establishment narrative.

i found that to people about home, we were hearing that they are under the gunpoint or having go controlled by that issue. and i me, the found that they're ready, 3, they're participating. and i think them like gay salivation and festival. and lee really giving message to the word that there is no fear, nor any pressure. and they are taking their own right when dish and garment did not buy display, do they only provide it logistic and infrastructure to along the lines and don't stick people to conduct the voting. when you come to the ill grounds, then you will understand what did that he energy from my united nation office. you can not say everything. so this is not what they were in. international media is going on and it is most of the time there is a fake news doing last 9 months. we observed that so many fake news circulated to

the by the western media to we still word polled word. and now, as the polls are now closed in the cons, republic international observers from france and italy have shared their 1st hand accounts of how the voting was conducted there. oh, we worked is international. observe is nas up rogia region and the city of multiple based on what we saw, i can say that the problem is not the ukrainian artillery, which can create fear. but actually it's saboteurs and intelligence groups wants to an inspection of a polling station. people who came to cast their ballots heads from journalists, cameras. they didn't want to show their faces. they wanted to keep their voting secret. you've asked me whether i'm afraid of returning to france. it's hard to give an unequivocal answer to that question. i write for many media outlets under my own name, and of course, that causes a certain degree of distress. when it comes to my job in france, there's less and less to do there. that's partly because france as a member of the

e. u has pivoted towards the global this agenda. i know a frenchman who stayed in the don bass on a humanitarian mission and part of the funds he had collected in france for children's hospitals in the dawn. bass was confiscated by the french authorities. he is even currently under investigation. it's evident that the french political system is now faltering, and that can explain such a hysterical reaction. to discuss the late as well as cross lived, your former pentagon, security analysts, michael maloof. mike, it's good to have you on the program today. now with the referendums, having concluded what's next for the regions? well, i think there will be a period of, of readjustment. the net effect however, is that they come under the protection of the russian federation. i think any subsequent showing of the region by the ukrainians will

probably enlarge the conflict unfortunately. and it's, it's something that and i think obviously if, if this was the will of the people, then that's what, that's what they want. and that's the way it's going to go. like what we saw in crimea. as you pointed out, the west is going to cuckoo it and based upon what i've seen from porn observers, there was no complaints, there was no intimidation. and that's remarkable. i think our own politicians here would love to have votes, approvals of that, of that magnitude, but that'll never happen. but the reality is that if this is what the people want and that's then that's what we're going to see. i think the same thing happened in a cause. yeah. and south the sat here in georgia and,

and the russians put, put it all to referendum and they were overwhelming as well because it's, it's something that they wanted to do is go back to go back to russia because the russian speakers are russian ethnic. so it makes a lot of sense. yeah, and this certainly stands to be a defining moment. now we've heard from the un security council, they've had their meeting. and we've also heard from president gate who said that if russia recognizes the referendum results, quote, they will have nothing to talk about if negotiations are out of the question for the key have been, how could this situation develop? well, it wouldn't have happened in the 1st place if the ukrainians had agreed to something that or had implemented what they agreed to,

namely implementation of min squandered meant to they were given that chance. and because of false guidance by the united states, they refused. and as a consequence, they reap the consequence. as a result of, at that time saying they were going to bring ukraine into nato. those, those are threatening to a country that has nowhere else to go. the united states comes half way around the world and, and works with and tries to move nato up to the russian federation line. that has been this the scheme all along. and i think that what russia has demonstrated today is that there are the russian f ethnic and russian speaking. people don't want that overwhelmingly. and i think the that if you crane continues to shell and,

or continues to try to subvert through these intelligence and also the, the, as a group folks. and then it's going to, it's going to enlarge the conflict altogether. and i think the, the west cannot sustain assisting ukraine over a long period of time, but russia and just have a war of attrition and, and just have a slow bleed. 5000 and certainly western politicians have been very loud about the fact that they do not approve of these referendums. and at the same time we heard from russia's ambassador to the un at his speed says that the most vocal western critics of the referendums are those who supported the independence of kosovo. are those cases really so different? are we simply seeing more double standards here? we're seeing the more double standards as usual. i the, the, the, the,

the west has an agenda. it's very clear. they want to avoid the they want to, they want to perpetuate distance circumvent of, of russia to contain it. and they don't like that the, the euro, the, the euro, asian vision that is, that is coming along now. that was significant that the representative from the bricks countries also spoke up in your lead up here. because it's when you get to consider bricks and s, s c o membership, countries coming together, it really represents over half the world. and half the world is basically saying we no longer want to be under western domination. and i think that this is what's happening. again, ukraine is just a cog in an overall scheme by the united states. if it was left up just to the europeans, i don't think they ever,

ever with them in joined in battle and created this, this crisis knowing what the consequences would be. now as we approach now, that we're in the fall and approaching winter, they're going to see the consequences of their own actions. all actions have consequences. and this is something they're going to have to put up with. now it is a very dramatic the people over the last can start are marching on and if there's any action by the ukrainians and response, i think that gives the russians. you're going to see the russians probably enlarge in the conflict altogether. certainly a lot at stake here, former pentagon. michael miller, thank you so much for your time in inside. my pleasure. thank you. and will keep you updated on all of the latest on the events and then don bass republics and break away regions and what the future holds for then

ah the u. s. secretary of state has emphasized the key ebs forces have a right to use american weaponry against the don bass, as well as the breakaway ukrainian regions of zapper. oh, she and her song, no matter whether or not they choose to join russia, build the us, still allow ukrainian troops to use us weaponry to defend against russians in those territories, no matter what the outcome of these referendums and this, these possible annexations ukraine has the absolute right to defend itself throughout its territory, including to take back the territory that has been illegally seized one way or another by russia. so essentially we have a situation where if the referendums do result in the dog bass regions joining the

russian federation, the united states would then it's blessing to an attack on russian territory with weapons that it supplied to the government in kia. now that is a red line, as far as russia is concerned, russia will not allow russian territory to be attacked. now, this is quite an important statement. we heard from the u. s. secretary of state. and it comes as the united states and nato continue to insist that they're not involved in the conflict, just like supplying weapons. this is the nato cheat. we need to ensure that this doesn't evolve into full fledged war in europe. we do the appalled plant by being very clear that nato and they draw laws are not to part due to the conflict. what we do is to support your crane, but you don't need to troops in ukraine of adult, of natal planes in the air. but we provide support to crane not,

there's not to be ported to the conflict. these words come from the nato chief, but they simply don't match the reality. there is a flow of weapons from the nato countries to the government in kiev. and furthermore, we've heard many representatives of russia, the international arena, describe how the governance, he is not really sovereign at all. it is simply a kind of a manifestation of nato power, that the decisions that the government you have make are not representative of any force within you grand, their representative of what the nato countries wants are. they don't really have the ability to exercise self determination. so despite the fact that nato in united states now saying they're not involved out the secretary of state coming forward and giving his official blessing to the government and not using these weapons just in this conflict, but actually attacking territory, that would be part of the russian federation, these are quite important words that you can notice that anti blanket made them

kind of off the coffee wasn't too excited as he was making them. those words are a very, very big deal as far as international relations are concerned. and then it makes the referendums that are taking place the day and the possible outcome in the next couple weeks. so something that everyone in the global community is going to be paying very close attention to sabotage cannot be ruled out. that's a comment from denmark's prime minister on damage to the north stream pipeline system, which resulted in a sharp drop and pressure. it's hard to imagine that it was an accident. we can not roulette sabotage, but it's also too early to make such a conclusion. this is a video from the location of the leak. according to the swedish media size molecule have registered powerful blast in the area and that countries authorities have begun an investigation into possible sabotage. the kremlin has called the situation unprecedented, saying the reason why the pipeline system has developed problems remains to be

determined, but no possible scenario could be excluded which entails and this is very concerning news. it's true that we're talking about some kind of damage to the pipeline in denmark, economic zone. although the exact nature of the damage is yet to be determined, the pressure in the pipeline has significantly drops. this is an unprecedented situation, and it must be immediately investigated. last year, nordstrom one accounted for 35 percent of russian gas exports to europe. the pipeline supplies were then slashed and later suspended with gas prom citing maintenance reasons. now with the latest incident, it's unclear when the pipeline will once again be operational. earlier, my colleague nicky aaron discuss the matter with rtp maria, closer over we have suite on saying that it has to leaks that has discovered leaks and it's in the nordstrom one pipeline penmark discovered the leaks on the

nordstrom to pipeline. and this, of course, comes after germany was also reporting a drop in pressure in both pipelines. now, this situation is extremely rare. it doesn't just happen like that. that's why everyone is saying, how could this have happened? and was there anyone involved? was this perhaps an act of sabotage, but we'll talk about that a little bit later. first, let's hear what the operator of north stream have to say. damage to 3 sections of the nord stream pipeline system in only one day is unprecedented. it is currently impossible to know how long it will take to restore this infrastructure to operational condition. so a situation where this would be just coincidental is not really on the card. exactly. but right now, what's also tricky is that there are conflicting reports as to how long it will take to fix the situation. some say months, others are saying even years. and right now this is critical with winter approaching this energy crisis that we're seeing unfolding could become even worse if the pipelines are completely not operational. what are the possible scenarios?

what could have happened here? some are saying that if this was a target to the task like the german daily, for example, were saying that everything speaks against the coincidence, and i'm quoting here, we cannot imagine a scenario that this is not a target to the type, but a targeted attack would involve i read it in some of the reports, but involve a submarine. someone will actually go and stay under the water and causing damage. this kind of damage because like i said, this is extremely rare for such a leak to happen. and here we're talking about really already, so who stands to benefit from that class? we know that there is an energy crisis unfolding you. this is, of course, a sensitive time in russia. we have the conflict on fold them with the crane. russia has already hold to the supplies to 20 percent from the north stream one pipeline north soon too is idle right now at the moment and we have the sanctions. and we also had a technical difficulty which affected the north stream on pipeline. so supplies

have been halted completely, so the european union has had to look for alternative solutions. there are looking for other suppliers. among them we have the united states. energy prices are skyrocketing, of course, some reports are saying that they haven't seen energy prices like that in 25 years . and here's an interesting point. let's hear what the u. s. president had to say at one point about the nordstrom to pipeline. if russian rage, that means tanks or troops crossing the on the border of ukraine again, then there will be we, there will be no longer a north stream to we will bring it in. how will you do that? exactly. since the product and control of the product is within germany's control, i promise you will be able do. despite raising gas prices, the german energy network regulator cheap has claim that the u is no longer

dependent on nordstrom gas supplies. he admitted, however, that the situation remains tense. economists, ag, how mars says that the situation is actually far worse than politicians are trying to portray. it is more something that makes suspicion that gives thought for conspiracy theories and so on. that of course, the americans are, we need from this the brief we need from this. the politics already, of course said yes, no problem. everything is fine. but if we get interruptions, this will have a much, much cost in the economy. it makes a much further damage because when you're not reliable anymore with your sources, germany is not a good producing location anymore, and this will harm the economy much more than anybody can say. it's a complete sham. that's how russian later bought a mirror,

described there was promise to export grain from ukrainian ports to the world's most in poverty countries. this is staying and it is according to the latest data on september 23rd, out of 203 ships with great left from ukrainian ports. only 4 went to impoverish countries as a part of the us program. this situation has not changed. it's a complete sham from western countries. the situation is very dramatic and why my port and earlier today has accused the west of provoking and now deepening global food crisis, mostly by sanctioning supplies of russian grain and fertilizers that the harvest is so dependent on abroad. he tries that the dramatic situation folding now has nothing to do with moscow's special military operation in ukraine. but the responsibility lies completely on the collective was an 8 sanctions fever. one report has also described their wishes countries. behavior is predatory here

reminded as you heard earlier, that only 2 percent of the grain had so far left the unblocked ukrainian pores following the break through un and turkey. broker deal went to the countries in needs. while most of it i, ron, was sent to the new while the whole idea was to help starve in africa. well, it seems that african keys are still waiting. he is the president of caney sharing his anger and his concerns. these unprecedented confluence of intensely adverse events. how's accessor baited? what does custody? and starvation wasn't by rising food prices thus complicating kenyata roadmap to was delivering good quality of life to our citizens. we cannot afford to waste another moment debating the merits of doing something v doing nothing. it will soon be too late to revive the course of events and then even the best.