occupied and annexed by russia. so ukrainian troops almost on a weekly basis are being killed, despite the fact there was supposed to be a cease fire. they re already at a heightened state of alert. there is a great deal of activity going into training of reserves, planning for stay-behind units to operate behind russian lines to make an insurgency against russian invasion. and the expectation it could happen at any moment. we shall watch events from there. it s good to have you on the ground in ukraine, sam. sam kiley, for us live from kiev. professor robert english is the director of central european studies at the university of southern california and he joins me now from genoa, italy. there s some pretext that russia would be justified in invade be ukraine. i mean, what do you make of it,
city is slow and dangerous, but every day relatively small numbers are leaving whatever way they can along what are supposed to be agreed corridors. a local official says some people have been fired upon. others have had their vehicles seized at russian checkpoints. the people of mariupol have no good options. stay and endure the horror of russia s bombardment, or face danger and uncertainty, leaving all they know behind. phil black, cnn, lviv, ukraine. horrible situation there in mariupol. and joining me now to discuss the latest developments is robert english. robert english is the director of central european studies at the university of southern california. nice to have you with us. nice to talk to you again have. we reached astalemate in the sense, not that russia is stopping its campaign over relentless bombardment, hitting civilian targets as well. but russia s not able really to advance in any significant way into the city centers a month
robert english is the director of central european studies at the university of southern california. he joins me now from los angeles. what s your assessment now of the battlefield advances of russian troops? on the ground, they re not advancing. they re using other methods now. they re losing. they are losing this war. they can steadily grind forward, but they can t really take territory. they can t conquer. all they can do is terrorize and destroy civilian targets, civilian homes and hospitals. they re losing this war. so what happens next? when you say they re losing, they re obviously still present in the country, still shelling, still using missiles and air strikes. they re killing civilians, as you said. they are terrorizing civilian areas. where do we go from here? i think we stay the course.
announce that outright ban on russian oil, all of them have a cost of course for the countries imposing them. and if this continues and going ahead long-term, there is a risk of deglobalization, and all these supply routes being disrupted bringing a sort of global recession on. there is a cost right now, the calculation being made by the west it is worth paying if that pressure is brought to bear because of what s happening on the ground in ukraine. melissa bell, thank you so much. so what do these developments mean in terms of wider global diplomacy? let s bring in robert english, director of central european studies in southern california, and he joins us in los angeles. thanks so much for being here with us. do you have confidence in the ongoing diplomatic efforts? putin seems to favor turkey and israel as regulators. but even those recent talks have gone almost nowhere, i guess. you think offers by turkey and