is written speculative reports about what putin might be planning in ukraine. and loss of outlets citing anonymous intelligence sources in the us the uk which the journalists are verifying. and they re asking well, how can we trust aren t and they re asking well, how can we trust this any more then were trusting what our own government is telling us? and just going back to that giant negotiating table, you spotted that putin was using the informal when addressing macron. which some say is his way of signalling to russian viewers that they are friends in russia isn t some sort of pariah. how do you read it? this formal and informal. some of our listeners may recall steve rosenberg talking about his interview with lukashenko the leader of belarus who used a less formal address for c. and steve took this as almost belittlement in an attempt to insult him. i think what putin was doing with macron is
of, for instance, support, they still played this game that there are rebels. so what they had and even the military actions were bad, were horrible for people, but they were limited. what now we have is russian troops in those so-called republics might mean that russia might use air force and navy, something the so-called rebels can buy on the free market. that is why ukrainians are taking it seriously, that it could be a different type of warfare. the decision by russia isn t to recognize those who hold republics in their current territory or overtake more land and for more towns where over around 2.5 million more people are residing is not yet there. i think right after the speech
to the car and left the city. we saw, like, a rocket went above us somewhere near. so we just cover our heads and started to pray. my mum was crying, i was terrified. all this as a massive convoy of russian armoured vehicles, stretching for tens of miles, is heading towards the capital kyiv. five people were killed after russia attacked a tv tower there. the president of ukraine said, nobody will break us. we are fighting for our land, for ourfreedom. nobody shall occupy our country, our citizens. back in kharkiv, there is deep hurt over what is happening. the city s closeness with russia isn t just about geography. many people there speak russian more than ukrainian.
independent perspective on what s happening in the country. there s a story up on the bbc news website at the moment of a young woman in kyiv, been calling her parents, and her parents simply don t believe that kyiv is under bombardment, that her parents are saying it s the ukrainians who are killing ukrainian citizens, not russian soldiers, that there is no bombing going in. that s an indication of how little information a lot of russians are getting at the moment, and if there is going to be some kind of pressure on president putin or some point to try to change his perspective, it s going to come as much as anything from protest in the streets in russia, but you won t get that if russia isn t getting the information they need, so it s a north korea kind of approach to information at the moment and that s not just damaging for the russian public, but damaging to the international community as well trying to tackle this problem. right, severe measure and see
europe, vladimir putin wouldn t be in a position to do this. so no, this is not something that we should be thanking joe biden for. this is something that i think we could have and should have avoided had we had better energy policy. shannon: we keep going back to the oil and gas issue and why russia isn t being hit with more sanctions on that issue. we have allies and people in the region to think about. how do we better manage it to make it hurt where it would actually hurt for putin. think you re absolutely right. any steps that we take. congress needs to be involved in those steps. we also need to take into account what europe is going to do at the same time thus russia be able to do an end run around any sanctions imposed. but it still doesn t do anything to us. it doesn t do anything for us if we step into this quagmire and we do nothing about our energy