for more on this story we're joined by our correspondent nick connolly in moscow and kiev post at a time matthew cote in the ukrainian capital welcome to you both maggie starting with you bring us up to date with the latest what is happening right now in kiev. will the prisoner exchanges already happen here was a very emotional scene at you but he's full airport when the plane arrived the prisoner the former prisoners now exited the plane they embraced president has announced he met their relatives brace their relatives a lot of emotions a very happy scene there now likely being taken to it in the medical clinic for medical checks but on this and that the exchanges happened some of the people returned include as mention film director alleged some sort of a very popular political prisoner but also 24 ukrainian sailors were captured while crossing from the black sea into the old city in november. journalist who was who is arrested while visiting family in moscow also called a night of ukrainian was 19 in 2017 when he was basically kidnapped and illegally extradited to moscow from belarus s

ever more on this story we're joined by kiev post editor and correspondent matthew cofa in kiev matthew bring us up to date with the latest what's happening right now. well. it was a very emotional scene at the airport where the plane landed and the prisoners exited they embraced president. they met with their families who are extremely emotional from the from the front from the scene there we can see that the people who we believe would be returned in this prisoner exchange were indeed returned people like director oleg sun sol perhaps the most famous political prisoner of ukraine held in russia who was just sentenced to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges also people like. a ukrainian patriotic farmer from crimea who was imprisoned on some very dodgy weapons possession charges. a journalist who was arrested while visiting family in russia and held in prison for many years. a 19 year old ukrainian who was basically kidnapped in belarus and illegally extradited to to russia to stand trial on some very dodgy terrorism charges as well as 24 ukrainian sailors captured while trying to c

and for more on this story we're joined by kiev post editor i'm correspondent matthew cup tie in kiev matthew tell us what's happening right now. well right now we're getting creasing information about preparations for the arrival of these prisoners we're hearing that family members have been have arrived at the accused airport to meet them we're seeing officials arriving at the airport there even been reports that the ukrainian president has announced he has gone there meanwhile in the russian side the editor in chief of russia today a news service in russia has published a tweet in which he showed a picture of people who are being returned from from ukraine to russia all the faces in the picture were blurred out except for one of. the editor of of. the russia in ukraine the russian news agency which is widely regarded as propaganda he was being charged with treason and he was released in the run up to this prisoner exchange ok now we are seeing live pictures right now from the at we know a russian plane has landed in kiev the prisoner swap is now under way but you can you tell us mo

well for more on this story we're joined now by our correspondent nick connelly who's in moscow and kiev post editor matthew come for who's in the ukrainian capital welcome to you both matthew starting with you this prisoner swap was long awaited it was even cancelled just a few weeks ago so what made it happen in the end. well it was indeed long awaited and of course it was a campaign promise for president bullet images and then skied but it wasn't exactly canceled a week or 2 ago rather there was information that it would happen and the information proved to be false as for what made it happen we know that there have been talks between between many intermediaries between ukraine and russia as well as talks between president bush is against the of ukraine and president vladimir putin of russia another sticking point here was a man named someone who was a fighter on the side of russia backed separatists in the done in the region of danielle school bus who is a witness or even a suspect in the downing of the mh 17 flight in 2014 which led to the deaths of 298 people russia wanted him included

donald trump's phone call with the ukrainian president a speak to what matthew whose and it's at the kiev post he's with us now live via skype from kiev matthew what's the view old volk of that in kiev and of his resignation well i think this is pretty very recent news for ukraine since the news broke that late last night our time and keep it saturday morning people are just waking up but i think this will be a very negative that will be perceived quite negatively in ukraine who was highly respected both in ukraine and on both sides of the aisle in the u.s. he was seen as a positive year a lot of people in ukraine say that he was very sensitive to the issues he listened a lot and he also from the point of view of the u.s. he was someone who could push negotiations and and approaches to potentially resolving this conflict even sometimes when they weren't necessarily entirely palatable and ukraine in general this a very highly respected individual and it will be a big moss or i think u.s. foreign policy in ukraine as well as for exams to 'd regulate this conflict in eastern ukraine so what peopl

victoria al-jazeera matthew cup for as editor at the kiev post he explains what the president transfers mean for ukraine russia relations. i think this is a positive step and it shows that there is the ability to negotiate over important things but i think that in order to ease tensions between the 2 countries and stop the war in eastern ukraine and resolve the issue there are a lot of other issues that need to be resolved and many of them are much more difficult than prisoner exchanges this was not a big compromise by anyone the biggest compromise here was ukraine deciding to handle human someone the m. 817 suspect or witness to russia this is a big victory president skins a big victory for ukraine as for the man who was a suspect or a witness to the mh 17 downing but would you meet someone this is of course what i meant when i said perhaps russian you did someone back at this moment of course the netherlands would have preferred that he not be handed over although the investigation and that 7 did manage to question him and he was also questioned by the ukrainian security services but

give evidence to politicians about the call earlier we were joined by matthew cook for from the kiev post newspaper he says kurt volker will be missed in ukraine. i think this will be a very negative event will be perceived quite negatively in ukraine volcker was highly respected both in ukraine and on both sides of the aisle in the u.s. he was seen as a positive big year a lot of people in ukraine say that he was very sensitive to the issues he listened a lot and he also from the point of view of the u.s. he was someone who could push negotiations and and approaches to the pretention resolving this conflict even sometimes when they weren't necessarily entirely palatable and ukraine in general this a very highly respected individual and it will be a big loss or i think u.s. foreign policy in ukraine as well as for attempts to regulate this conflict in eastern ukraine well if we look at the whistleblower complaint we don't be honest i don't think it is extremely damaging to her whole career we see that he was trying to help the craniums navigate this very complicated and unpleasant situati

trump's phone call with the ukrainian president a speak to what matthew could put his and it's at the kiev posthe's with us now live via skype from kiev matthew what's the view old in kiev and of his resignation. well i think this is pretty very recent news for ukraine since the news broke or at late last night part time and keep it's saturday morning people are just waking up but i think this will be a very negative event will be perceived quite negatively in ukraine volcker was highly respected both in ukraine and on both sides of the aisle in the u.s. he was seen as a positive figure a lot of people in ukraine say that he was very sensitive to the issues he listened a lot and he also from the point of view of the u.s. he was someone who could push negotiations and approaches to potentially resolving this conflict even sometimes when they weren't necessarily entirely palatable in ukraine in general this is very highly respected in the.

kiev. >>> "washington post" national correspondent phillip bump joins us.ood morning. >> good morning. >> a rough transcript of the call between the about the and the ukrainian president essentially showed trump telling him he would be hearing from attorney general william barr. what are the implications of that being that the justice department stood down on investigating the whistleblower account? >> right. i think there are a couple of concerns that have been raised about that. the first is that those mentions of barr also come in concert with mentions of rudy giuliani who's working directly for the essentially president trump is saying this is my team, i have my attorney general and also my private lawyer, both of whom are working together on this issue, the issue, of course, being an investigation of his political opponent. now, there are all sorts of ways in which this raises questions about barr's role in this. a lot of which have been explored over the past few days. it includes the fact that the department of justice also declined to take any actio

kiev even seems ridiculous grandma day out to eat it's all that. i'm a joke join me to meet the germans on t.w. post. in libya over 5000 refugees are languishing in detention centers in inhumane conditions hundreds of people are crammed into gether they're hungry have no clean drinking water and many are ill reports of human trafficking torture and random shootings are common. they said you're a slave you're black. even woke us up in the middle of the night to torture us when the. german diplomats talk about serious human rights abuses so what exactly is going on there and why. our journalist reports from neighboring news there which has taken in 3000 refugees from camps in libya. syria. these images show the conditions in libyan jails they were taken by refugees in different detention centers human rights activists describe the mistrust was so messaging services reestablished direct contact with 2 refugees who've been trapped in a libyan detention center for 2 years their voice messages reveal their plight be faulted their voices to protect their identities. we've been tortured where terrifies were

. >> well, look, for one, largest english language paper in kiev has already said this is a bogus story. "the washington post outlets said it is a conspiracy theory, it is bogus. >> that will not convince the president. >> no, it is not. something they should hit on. you pivot back to the president again abusing his power for his own self interest. you can't spend a lot of time defending nonsense. i don't think his supporters should as well. they should make the point this is bogus and raise the question as to why is the president using government resources, that's what this is, looks like he is trying to extort ukraine to investigate his biggest opponent, the one he fears most, which is joe biden. >> isn't this a sign of weakness for trump, how much he is risking of his own presidency to use his powers to beat up biden? >> sure. it is also the only strategy available to him. we talked about this before. >> he had other strategies. >> but from day one, he has gone to his base, rather than broaden the coalition, every single day he trades between the upper 30s and mid 40s in the polls. he will never get above

that i now not blame kiev needed seen me thickness graham us day out delete thus it's all that out look at it bob nuked good my mate joke to join me for meet the jevon fundie duppy of post naturally richards with a and precious resources the some time to room warning investment farmland yes because the easy your peers a green colin to the country has enough bunton sumach lisa's it to inter-national her trance the government after hype next morning news for come to corporations from high profit margin but not everyone benefits from the booming business objects creation but far mental destruction the starvation the bus selling out over a country dead donkey use fear starts to turn marie teeth on d. w. plague the big play this is dig up live near is life from the bud their the in cupboard european commission chief of us your of fonda lighter than the sets climate protection as a top priority fault i knew copy most jun fails up proposed it a jet the fallon's to commission today. also on the program a german jihadi bride to truck to the coast refugee country to take back us citizens to join foreign terrorist organizations but explore the issue. of results.

you report today in the "washington post" ukrainian officials wanted vice president pence to attend the inauguration for zelensky in kieved, right? >> part of the whistle-blower complaint saying that this may 20th inauguration that cynthia n i ukrainians wanted vice president pence to be there and canceled as a way to squeeze the ukrainians and get them to investigate vice president biden. we talked to members of the trump administration who say there was discussion about having vice president pence go to ukraine. talks about different dates for making that trip happen. at some point the vice president decided not to go and wouldn't go fully saying president trump canceled the meeting but any time vice president pence goes abroad needs approval from the president. lends credence at some point vice president pence was scheduled or thinking of going to ukraine and ultimate decided not to go around the same time president trump was putting pressure on ukrainians and personal other than rudy giuliani putting pressure on ukrainians to try to investigate joe biden as a part of the broader campaign. >> and showing a xrostrong

scandal is speaking out and telling "the washington post" that joe biden's son hunter did not violate any laws. cnn's matthew chance is live in kievre. this is so confusing. that's what the whole thing was supposed to be founded on according to rudy giuliani and the president. >> yeah, it is confusing. you know, there's been contradictory statements by y i yuriy lutsenko. he's been saying since may that the bidens did nothing wrong. but before that he was one of the leading advocates of the sort of speculation, the conspiracy theory that joe biden acted inappropriately. he's basically the source of that rumor. not so much the source, but the main point of contact inside the authorities for rudy giuliani and the trump administration in its kind of efforts to find dirt on joe biden. it seems that yuriy lutsenko reached out to rudy giuliani back in january of 2019. they met in that month. they met in the following month as well in which we expected they discussed things related to this. they did seem to go into it whole hog. we've seen now that white house transcript of the conversation on july the 25th between president trump and hi

that prisoner swap between ukraine and russia joining us live from kiev is mark matthew kupfer who is the news editor at the key of the posts or thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera 1st of all why do you think all of this is happening now and that the new president of ukraine of the myriad zelinsky has been in power what under 4 months a former comedian i mean why do you think it happened now that he is in power in ukraine. well i think there's a number of different factors he made this one of his campaign promises that he is personally been involved in this process of trying to negotiate the prisoner swap other people were also involved there were other people communicating between the 2 sides at the same time what we there's a likely was an international element to it which of the russian president met with french president mccollum we were several weeks ago and it's likely they discussed this issue there at the same time there it looks like also just a matter of certain agreements came together at this moment there was a lot of effort put forward perhaps there was need to but on the russian side also to ge

kiev need to change the picture for this drama day out to me it's all about ok bob look i my job join me for me the gentleman from d.w. . post. s.o.s. europe the european union is in crisis. if it's to have a future it will be champions. young champions. live in boston but out that spot spirit know for a long time i took peace in the things we valued and hear it for granted that now i sense this need be something that we can and people in particular to me to fight like a woman to come see. me for activists from for a new country. they are fighting for the dream of a commissioner looking at. stand a chance. can they saved in your opinion idea. what's funny to stand up tonight here in tennessee and contribute to something impulsive internet issue coming up see if. the future of europe starts september 2nd on d w. a. hong kong has seen more violent clashes between police and pro-democracy demonstrators thousands defied an official ban on protests on the 13th straight weekend of marches. police sprayed protesters with blue dye and make dozens of arrests is 5 years since china planned for.

post. this was one day after his name came out in a whistle-blower complaint that sparked theism paoefp impeachment inquiry. let's get the perspective from ukraine. our chief international correspondent clarissa ward in kiev. look, this career diplomat seems to have been respected there in ukraine. tell us more about the impact of his resignation. >> reporter: that's right, george. we are hearing some statements from the former ukrainian president, parshenko who described it as disturbing and from the current top aide to zelensky saying volker had been a consistent source of support throughout his tenure in that position. andriy yermak is the man who put with giuliani through volker in madrid some time ago. so other these set of statements about the resignation of volker we are not hearing very much at all, george, from ukrainian politicians because there is a sense of unease ukraine has been put into an impossible situation, that it is in the middle of a political tug-of-war in the united states, which is its greatest benefactor. it is hugely dependent on the largest of the u.s. some 400 million u.s. dollars being given in military aid this year alone, more than $1.4 billion being given since 2015. so uk