this is president yanukovych? yes. i did notice one _ president yanukovych? yes. i did notice one of your _ president yanukovych? yes. i did notice one of your president advises was saying the man who might be a puppet leader was a bit of a joke figure these days and although he thought we should take the story seriously, he was sceptical about whether the intelligence on this was accurate. the whether the intelligence on this was accurate. . ., , , ., accurate. the particular guy is not reall an accurate. the particular guy is not really an important _ accurate. the particular guy is not really an important politician, - accurate. the particular guy is not really an important politician, but| really an important politician, but he has an anchor on one of the tv channels. 50 he has an anchor on one of the tv channels. , ., ., �* he has an anchor on one of the tv channels-— channels. so you don't see this as innocent journalists _ channels. so you don't see this as innocent journalists like _ channels. so you don't see this as innocent journalists like me - channel

i mean, i'm interested on your thoughts on this, the former president, president yanukovych, who fledbly ukraine's last reliably pro—moscow leader, he is in or has been in russia. is there been any attempt to put him on television screens to talk about ukraine? because we're obviously talking about it all the time in britain and other western european countries — never mind ukraine themselves — but i have heard a lot of coverage from your colleagues in bbc moscow saying actually ukraine doesn't feature that much on television screens in russia at the moment. well, mr yanukovych himself lives a peaceful life in the south of russia on the border with ukraine. he doesn't appear much on television, neither in russia or ukraine. i wouldn't say he's trying to get back to politics in any way. the only time we see him on a television screen is when actually he is to go in a trial, in a court case. that's the only times, actually. a 16—year—old fatally stabbed last night in the stretford area of manchester has been named as kennie carter. four teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murde

yanukovych -- in the initial battle the russians won. they gave him more money. i saw a very senior russian government official around that time. here said, mike, here is your problem, speaking about the west. number one, we care more about ukraine than you do. number two, you guys have short time -- attention spans. we'll be here forever. you'll forget about us and time will move on. i think about that quote. here we are now. we're not talking about crimea. we're talking about the new invasion, the new guarantees we have to make to putin. and already because of that i would say that's a major victory for vladimir putin, that he's pocketed those victories. that's part of the past. nobody is talking about those interventions and violations of sofity before. number two, he likes the fact that he so far -- he's given nothing. he's indicated no concessions and we're now talking about concessions. i think from his point of view and the proposals that are now going to be aukd about even today and tomorrow, that's already a second victory. the third victory we have to a

to a more western-leaning footing and this was reversed again in the early 2010s with president yanukovychs more russian-friendly. when he was removed from -- when he fled the country, after the revolution, that's when the russians chose to strike, when ukraine was most vulnerable, when russia had all the forces in place to conduct this operation in 2014, that's when they struck to make sure ukraine stayed in this orbit. this is a continuation of that fight right now. >> before i ask you about what happens if war begins, i want to ask you about what joe biden said the other day about restricting dollars as a form of deterrence. let's play that for a second. >> we find ourselves in the position where i believe you'll see that there will be severe economic consequences. for example, anything that involved dollar denominations, if they make -- if they invade, they're going to pay. they're not going to -- their banks will not be able to deal in dollars. >> is that a real threat? and does russia worry about it? >> it is a real threat from the u.s. i think they have some doubts on whether we'll

in russia anyway and are part of the former administration of ukrainian ex-president vik viktor yanukovych. they sanctioned four individuals just earlier this week for allegedly working at the behest of russia's security services, the fsb, to try to destabilize the political situation here in ukraine. and one of those individuals on that treasury sanctions list is also on this fco or british foreign office announcement as well. so clearly something going on but very difficult to know the details behind it with so little information provided by the british foreign office. >> arlettee, the u.s. just sent new military aid to ukraine. we heard earlier, and you just reported how tony blinken pree sanctions. but is the biden administration trying to calculate whether it should be sending more military aid to ukraine? >> that is something they are constantly evaluating. you saw that first shipment of that recently approved security assistance arriving in ukraine over the weekend. likely any further assistance that is offered is likely to be done in conjunction with u.s. allies, nato allies, as we

named four individuals who are actually in russia now who are part of the administration of viktor yanukovych who was forced to flee after the revolution and they gave the name of one potential candidate who would run here for the kremlin named yevgeni moraev. he essentially said that these allegations were ludicrous because he's ukrainian and the russian-backed candidate is well known fd and he is actually tanksed by russia. but ukrainian officials here saying it's very important to have this information out in the open and certainly the u.s. is also saying, according to one security official, that this does gel with information that they have received. what we don't know, and what i think would be really important to know is a little bit more context around this. is this current information? is this happening imminently? and in what context does it happen? in the context of an invasion or some other scenario? we just don't have enough information yet, fredricka. >> all right. keep us posted as you learn it. clarissa ward in ukraine. arlette saenz in washington, thank you. >>> as the uk appe

they are former ukrainian politicians, closely associated with the government of viktor yanukovych, who was, of course, the kremlin-backed leader of this country for many years. so there's no real subterfuge going on here, in terms of the role of these individuals. the question becomes, what were they doing in this specific moment, and that we don't actually know. but i should also add, paula, that it would not be surprising in any way, shape, or form for russia to trying to install puppets, people close in allegiance, pawns. we saw this do in crimea back in 2014. but again, the question becomes how do they go about installing loyal leadership? and that really remains an open question. >> reporter: and again, peculiar the way the statement was put out and certainly times of timing. sergey lavrov and antony blinken had just met. they believe that a compromise in some way, shape, or form might be possible. i'm wondering from you, having covered so much in the region and now on the ground in ukrainian, are ukrainians hopeful that there might be some kind of compromise here? >> reporter: i

yanukovych accepted the slight, igniting protests then fled his country. then putin annexed crimea. in recent years he has tried to get the president of ukraine volodymyr zelensky to make a deal on the eastern ukrainian region of donbas, home of the highest proportion of russian speakers in the country and where russian army regulars have been fomenting an insurgency. he tried to get the germans to accept a referendum on secession. to the liberal reformer gorbachev russian leaders have regarded ukraine as fundamentally tied to moscow. ukraine's first two presidents while asserting the country's newfound independence were careful not to break too sharply with moscow. according to a census conducted in 2001 almost 30% of the country's population spoke russian as their first language. putin's dilemma is that ukraine is in slow motion escaping russia's grasp. in the last decade the country has become more independent, democratic and pro-western. the west has been cooperating and assisting in an ever greater measure but putin is also probably cautious of the reality that an outright russ

five different people, four politicians who were part of the previous administration under viktor yanukovycha revolution. all four of those politicians are in russia now so not hugely surprising that they would be actively involved in meddling here on behalf of the russians, and also they named the candidate here in ukraine who they believe the kremlin would be trying to install. we reached out to him for a comment, he said that he's actually sanctioned by the russians and that he is ukrainian and has no further comment. the foreign office went on to tweet, this is the foreign secretary of the uk, liz truss, she says, we will not tolerate a kremlin plot to install pro-russian leadership in ukraine. but what we don't have a sense of is whether this is new intelligence, old intelligence, when this would take place, in what context it would take place. one u.s. security personnel did say that the u.s. believes that it has the same information and of those five people who were named on the list, those five ukrainian politicians accused of working with russia to try to disrupt the ukrainian polit