Despite and ongoing hunger crisis, economic racism, thats what youve gone and politicians call a new resolution forcing the country to stop building gas pipeline for the sake of environmental goals that as the country verges on Energy Poverty with from moscow to the world. This is our t international. Im Rachel Blevins and here are the top stories this hour. Both the john ask and luke on public as well as 2 regions and ukraine have announced they will be Holding Referendums on whether to become part of russia voting and the to don bass. Republics and ukraines person and zap or she regions will be held on september 23rd to the 27th. We spoke to locals in all of these regions, many se this could help achieve peace in the ballistic and then ill vote in favor of it. I have an extremely positive view of this is exactly what wed been waiting for since 2014. Our people have suffered a lot for the idea of joining russia. All these events have shown that we have one path. It should be done as soon as possible, so we hope that no one will attack russian territory. It will, i will walk in favor because its time to become part of russia who have been wait impatiently for e. T is what were tired of. The whole situation with this region must return to its home. The time has come, so the decision must be made. I will vote yes so that there will be no more shelling and everything will work out so that we live as we did before. Weve been heading towards this for a long time, 8 years. It should have been done a long time ago, and very happy about this. We are, i think life will become more stable. There will be protection. Maybe the war will and sooner ill vote in favor of it. Also weve wanted to return home for a long time since 2014, the sooner the better without russia, we have no future. We spoke with the head of his opera. She reagan who said the authorities will do everything to ensure safety for those who want to express their well, literally a huge oxy. Hooked up a sheet. Im sure that i see the nations will i drive around saragossa region and the vast majority of residents cult hold a referendum as soon as possible as they want to join russia. We dont want to be some grace and we dont want to become ukraine again. We want to become a part of russia, as we historically always have been. It was decided to hold a referendum in such a way as to avoid a mass gathering of people. Thats why the referendum process will last several days. Everyone will have the opportunity to devote if necessary. We can collect votes from citizens at home. This is necessary so that zelinski lead saboteurs wont be able to fire on and shed the blood of citizens who just want to express that will to be part of the russian unity. Everything possible will be done to ensure security. You want us to re ukrainian authorities have worn vogels that any such referendum is forbidden, as they say, organizers would face a tweed jacket in jail. And anyone who participates would be in prison for 5 years. My colleague worry. So shatt spoke with a panel of gas who said many residents in those regions are looking forward to the chance despite the risks. Guns, absolutely absolute. My jury is certainly standing for what we have fighting for, for 8 years here. To get full recognized from the Russian Federation and, and to get back home. That is the mood what has been here for years and it has been defended against a brutal attacks of the kill forces course. A lot of people were awaiting that for 8 years. So people are really impatient to be able to voice their choice. And but of course people are a bit afraid about the security because we have the massacre which are cured in, in the center of the net, just due to a shooting from the ukranian army. So there are a lot of questions about that from people, but people are really willing to, to voice their choice. I think this will take place correctly and legally because it was the desire of the people off the dont boss to have me for what really matters here is the this is ceo, shy cooperation organization. If the funds are on their regular nicer you, if the breach countries will recognize and so that we can get to the movie. Ready world ukraine says referendums will change. Nothing. Is that really the mood and no, no, i see him from the information we have from ukrainian telegram channels. That there is a mood of fan 18, the president to cabinets in bunkerville. Because of course, i understand that the front line isnt after the russian territory. They mean that russia, i can officially declare war against ukraine, but for them it means that the last 6 months would have be in the like the nice path in heaven compared to what weighed them . What is it gonna take the people in the, to don bass republics and these 2 regions, for example, how to saw it ends up at all me. Whats it gonna take for them to be recognized by western professional partners . These people to be recognized as legitimate residents of their own republics or potentially that of russian territory. I think that the recognizing starts from each of us from ourselves. And i think that from their starts to real healing, recognizing yourself as a true russian is a very big step forward. If somebody doesnt want to recognize these peoples real and and determination, which has been shown through the world for 8 years, thats their problem. I think they have a whole to paternity just to be with the hong factories, according to their own desire and their own agreement to who i shall. I think it will be really many people, all the points for the people him come back of the piece. Come back, a rude economical conditions for, for people and for the business. Several western leaders have said in response that they will not recognize the referendums, french president , my crohn has slammed the plan votes as a quote. Parity of democracy, while german chancellor shows has said the International Community will not acknowledge the results with less cross live. Now to serbian american journalist and boys mallet nav as great have you on the program today. Now what do you think about this latest reaction from the western leaders who say they will not recognize the vote . Well, nobodys asking them to, i think the whole message. You know, i think the, in the entire so called International Community, which is, would basically the us and its allies like to call themselves completely missed a memo since february that the whole point of the special meals, reparation, and whatever it is about to become with these referenda is that nobody should care what they think anymore. I think that was the message from oscar, and that some people got loud and clear and others just completely missed it. I dont think russia cares if the west recognizes this. Theyre following their own laws. Theyre following International Law is written and nobody, you know, they, theyre insisting that they can interpreted just as well as anybody, you know, the english or france or to us, or germany, probably even better. And i think thats, you know, its one of those, you know, all of sholtes or, or tara sure were slough underlie and they will think that, you know, theyre both matters in this situation. And it really does it well, you know, you bring up really the response from the western leaders and whether or not it matters. And i guess that brings up the question, does the International Recognition really matter here, or is this just one of those cases where the people need to be heard . And that speaks for itself at the end of the day. Well, so lets assume that for sake of argument that the, the referenda will be held and that the result will be positive and that they will be admitted into russia like crimea was in 2014 at tul ukraine or its western backers. It wont matter because they will declared at this is ukrainian territory and treated as such, which means in just growing bombing just as theyve been doing, and don bass and theyve recently attacked crimea. So unfortunately, those, those people who are hoping that this will, you know, end the bombing and end the war are probably mistaken. But in the other hand, it will make a difference in russian law. And it will make a difference in how mosque was allowed to prosecute military options. Because in ice brush in law, then it would be russian territory. Then it can be depended, would you know, a certain different level of military force that it, what has been going on so far . People are very quick to forget that in the run up to the operation of february, the parliament actually pass laws and powers authorizing a president. To do this, it wasnt just something he decided to do out of thin air. And, you know, there had to be a legal preparation for attend worse. Once again, seeing legal preparation for certain moves and i think people should be paying attention to go, well, thats a great point. And you know, speaking of everything that kind of goes on behind the scenes, now crone is there in his statement, claiming that this would be a parity of democracy. I mean, how do you think the people of the don bass would react to such a statement . Especially given everything theyve been through over the last 8 years. What . So theres 2 things that play here. First of all, nobody in the you has any moral right . To call out anybodys democracy, given that their whole process of unifying the government and expand its authority, was defeated in referenda in france, among other things, other places. And ireland had to vote twice until they got it right. And then nobody was given a choice at all. It was just made as an interest, a contract with no question being put to the people at all because the overwhelming majority were kept being against it. So, you know, the, you giving anybody lectures in democracy when theyre basically a non democratic superstate is, is a parody of democracy right there. But secondly, its interesting to me that ukraine and its backwards in the west, the people of don bass and now in his own, in support. Osha and even how to cough or not people. But there are things because i remember very distinctly in 202013 early 2014. The west was very strict about the government and have, you know, dont use force dont, dont, you know, violently suppressed them. I don, your respect, human rights and all that, you know, there are all these calls, you know, no violence, no violence, even if these supposedly peaceful demonstrators, resetting Police Officers on fire. And as soon as victoria new law got to a point, then you government and key have all of a sudden all of those calls ended. It absolutely did not matter what kind of force the new government used against that it suddenly became perfectly fine to burn people alive and odessa, sent tanks upon absolutely Peaceful Protesters in harcourt, and elsewhere. And then declare war on don bass and nobody better nigh that was suddenly fine. So theres no standard at play here. You know, these people obviously dont recognize democracy and dawn best because they dont recognize the people there as human. But thats their problem. That it is and you know, it seems like those politicians only want to talk about it when its convenient. Now, bringing really history into this. I mean, do you think that this whole situation is reminiscent of what happened in yugoslavia and serbia . What parallels or differences do you see between what happened in the 2 different conflicts or absolutely, i mean, the west has been using to, you was love model to break up versus soviet union. And then, you know, try to, you know, its talking about breaking up russia and its also selective standard. You know, its fine for this arbitrary political unit to succeed, but its not fine for ethnic groups who declare their own units the seed unless theyre the units that we like. Like the albanians and coast of oak, though its one of those, it doesnt matter what, like, it doesnt matter. Your category, you could be a republic or a self proclaimed autonomy. The only thing that matters is the west on your side or not. So the bosnian serbs, for example, are the serbs in croatia were illegal, but the Ethnic Albanians separate to serbia were fine. And you know, i remember distinctly brock obama even invented a referendum in kosovo that never existed. It never happened. He just made it up on a thin air and said it, you know, condemning russia for crimea where there was a referendum in International Observers were able to attend. And nobody ever said that it was, you know, staged or falsified, or fortified or pressured in any way. And you know, obama comes out and says, oh yeah, there the coast of all there was a legal referendum and everything was fine. And thats, thats a completely different case. Well, it is a completely different case because natal occupy it and date a group of citizens as redefined by nato instead of a provisional government recognized by the u. N. Declared independence and that was declared to be fine because we make the rules. Well. Again, the whole point of this entire year has been that the west is no longer the sole interpreter and creative rules on the planet. That is the message. Thats not my message. Thats the message moscow has been trying to send. And jurors met with a whole bunch of other leaders in summer khan, and they seem to be on board with the program. So if i were one of these western politicians thinking that you know, im still a global spending empire and everybody else is going to listen to what i have to say. And i dictate what the International Community is. I would actually be very concerned that this is very much no longer the case. Certainly a lot of stake here and it doesnt take much in order to find the fuckers, especially when looking at the response from the west, serbian american journalist, voice message. Thank you so much for your time and insight. Thank you for having me. Meanwhile, local Officials SayUkrainian Forces have, shall the zophar, Ocean Nuclear power plant. Amid the news of the planned referendum in that region. Officials say the facilities cooling system has been damage in the neighboring hearse on region, a Ukrainian Missile hit an Apartment Building according to the local authorities. You can see the aftermath in these images. At least 4 people were reportedly wounded in the incident on the world, hunger crisis has been in the spotlight at the Un General Assembly as secretary general, Antonio Gutierrez has drawn the world attention to the fertilizer supply problem, saying these products cannot be sanctioned. Now must urgently address the global 30 lies the markets crunch. Vizier, the world as enough foods. The problem is this revolution. But if the fertilizer market is not stabilized next year, the problem might be food supply itself. It is essential to continue removing all remaining obstacles to the exports of profit for the lies. Isnt that ingredients including ammonia . These products are not subject to sanctions. Earlier, the regional african director of the humanitarian Aid Organisation concerns worldwide demanded the International Community. Step in to tackle the famine which has been brought about by a current drought. The waiting game must stop. Now we are scaling up our response, but we need the resources to help all those effected equally. If we are to contain the situation, a number of states have also written a letter to the International Community, pleading for their health and combating the worldwide hunger situation. Earlier, our t correspondent Fiorella Isabel gave the details to our colleagues. Worry sushi. There is an open letter that seeks to address this question of literally life and death. And this letter has been signed by were 230 organizations and 75 countries. And this claims that one person dies every 4 seconds of, of hunger. And of course, this is a morally unconscious level thing to not address. So lets take a look. 50000000 people and now just one step away from starvation. Over 345000000. 00, more bowing under the crushing weight of hunger, struggling to feed their families and at risk of death. The International Community and National Governments are fighting to meet their duty. And if prioritized, political and economic interests over the well being of the worlds most Vulnerable Children and families and communities and a world of plenty leaving people to staff as a policy choice, we call on you is world latest to take urgent action to stem this crisis and prevent future ones. So those are strong numbers and strong words, considering the numbers have increased so much since 2019. And what were seeing to is that this letter draws attention as to how politicians have been ignoring the poorest countries to for the wealthier countries, we seen the media and the attention be of course, in ukraine these last few months. And of course, the most affected people in the world are suffering because of that. Now, one country in particular i want to point out is somalia. Somalia is a country that is facing 250 people at risk of death directly just a few days ago. That you and revealed that the somalian who monitoring Response Plan is only 60 by percent funded, which means that, that we need to really get on this. And now the question is, what, what other country, what are other countries going to do about this over to yemen . Is a big deal to, but some people call yemen that the biggest manmade catastrophe in the history of mankind. When you talk about Global Responses, weve heard about cargo ships being sent to, well, the supposed to go to the poor countries on epic. They kind of end up going to the richer countries, what, what is the Global Response . Right, right. So like i said, were seeing billions and billions go to in ukraine, right. And were seeing that little priorities go specifically to ukraine. So just yesterday, a Ukrainian Deputy minister of a gary and a policy and food pretty much boasted about the help that ukraine was actually offering. Lets hobble attention is being drawn 1st and foremost to how many ships go to africa. Because there a