ukrainian and russian officials met in the german capital for talks on ending the conflict in eastern ukraine but nearly nine hours of talks on thursday still failed to produce a breakthrough on signing a joint document however both sides agreed to keep talking talks with the french and german officials aimed at ending an eight-year-long separatist conflict in eastern ukraine but the lack of progress marked a setback for efforts to defuse the crisis the conflict in donetsk and luhansk region simmers on even to this day despite a national ceasefire or a rather notional ceasefire now russian foreign minister sergey lavrov accused ukraine of trying to rewrite the 2015 agreement also accusing kiev of cherry picking only the elements most advantageous to it ukraine says meanwhile that it is committed to the accord it rejects moscow's assertion that it has nothing to do with the conflict kiev said that russia has forces inside ukraine fighting alongside the separatists following the build-up of its forces near ukraine russia held military exercises in belarus and the black sea ukraine also staged war games which will run until february 20th in a new point of friction ukraine criticized the russian naval exercises kiev said that it was part of a hybrid war adding that the exercises had made navigation in the black sea along with the sea of azov virtually impossible fearing an invasion in fact the u.s now has urged americans in the country to leave immediately the advisory came due to increased threats of russian military action leaders and all sides are now still hopeful for some kind of diplomacy would prevail russian president vladimir putin said that negotiations with the west continue in the open and closed modes and that moscow is preparing a response to both nato and washington u.s president joe biden meanwhile urged americans to immediately leave ukraine as russian troop deployment and military drills deepen the fears of an invasion in an interview to the nbc news website said that things could actually escalate quickly and that if russia invades ukraine there is no scenario where he would send in troops to rescue americans if they are trapped [Music] what scenarios would you put american troops to rescue and get americans out there's not that's a world war when americans and russia start shooting at one another we're in a very different world than we've ever been in biden's remark came out after russia had rolled its tanks across belarus and conducted live fire drills that drew ominous warnings from nato and added an urgency to western efforts to avoid a feared invasion meanwhile amid heightened tensions between nato and russia over ukraine air force's b-52 strategic bombers landed in britain for scheduled nato exercises the deployment comes amid fears that russia is in fact planning to invade its pro-western neighbor ukraine [Music] [Applause] our executive sharma padhya is on ground zero covering all the latest updates she joins us live from the russia ukraine border now my first question to you palki you have been reporting for us from kier for weeks now you are currently reporting in fact from a very sensitive area gauging public sentiment during the conflict what's your assessment of what's happening on ground i'm at the saint kiev border checkpoint and this site where i'm standing will be the site of the opening battle in case russia decides to invade ukraine because to my right is belarus this road leads to belarus the border is right behind where we are standing and to my left is russia and where we are is ukraine in front of me you see the the last ukrainian village on the northern side which is so this is a very very significant spot a former defense minister of ukraine recently said that the 600 mile long border between ukraine and belarus is a high risk zone and we went here today to to see what was happening because on the other side of the border i'm sure you know that russia and belarus are conducting drills they have s 400 missile systems su-35 fighter jets scandal missiles tanks all sorts of military deployment and 30 000 troops and so this is a very sensitive zone uh the border guards who are stationed here uh are are prepared they say for whatever is coming they've always operated under the shadow of war and they understand the risks involved but they are uh singer they are standing steady we we were given uh a tour of of this area and a lot of places are out of bounds you would understand because of security concerns there were vast stretches of land where we told we could not step on because there were land mines but but this is uh the last ukrainian village this is a border checkpoint uh beyond which we have russian territory right now palki there are also multiple narratives about the current conflict that are ongoing globally right now the u.s of course is warning americans to leave ukraine warning of the crisis escalating how will all this impact the ongoing tensions between russia and the west well joe biden's statement and his administration's assessment uh becomes more dire by the day when we began this week we were telling our viewers about american intelligence assessments that said that kiev could fall within 48 to 72 hours that there might be 50 000 civilian casualties 25 000 troop casualties on the ukraine inside this was american assessment they could not they could not give any specific details on how they arrived at those numbers but that's what they said now in this past week we've seen the u.s president repeatedly say that american citizens should evacuate this is the time to leave and he's made a very important statement today where he says that he is not going to send u.s troops to evacuate citizens because he's been giving them enough warnings and he says we're facing one of the biggest militaries in the world i.e the russian military and things could quote unquote go crazy at any time and that does not instill a lot of confidence in the people here but if you talk to the people of ukraine they say that they're hoping there is not going to be a war and they're confident in their forces and the spirits remain high absolutely now uh there have been some updates in this conflict of course more information is trickling in pulkey recent satellite images in fact show more russian deployment what's your take on the same will this create more fears in the region especially of an invasion that is concerning we've seen russian warships in the black sea we've seen newer images coming out so that that is one thing that remains a constant you could say priyanka that russian deployments continue to go up even as russia says that it does not want a war it is adding more troops it is adding more in terms of military equipment and encircling ukraine and that remains a point of concern at the same time we understand that there is still room for talks because the latest russian statement says that they're not happy with u.s troop deployments in europe they say that is not acceptable and they are going to push for the minsk accords uh in uh the united nations security council that meeting that is scheduled for the 17th of february and that gives one hope that talks are still going to continue even though europe's shuttle diplomacy has not delivered any results and even while there are war brief clouds hovering of this region you see that trucks are still passing uh this is a very sensitive border there are checks happening at every point uh but but commerce has not stopped then that gives people some hope right now you're obviously in kiev in ukraine you've been getting us all the updates from ground but i think the biggest question as of now is what's going on in the minds of the ukrainian people are they fearing the worst at the moment there is tension and that is undeniable everyone you speak to says that there is no telling what vladimir putin does and which way the russians will go and everyone is aware of the fact that the russian military is very big it could overwhelm the ukrainians if they so desire russia has put everything on the table the fact that their president came out and said that while nato forces uh are are very big at the same time uh the world must remember that there will be no winners in this war and that russia is a nuclear power so those threats are very much there uh the hope here in kiev is that diplomacy delivers and not tanks but at the same time uh the president of ukraine vladimir zelinsky has made it very clear that none of these compromises are going to come at the cost of ukraine's sovereignty when the europeans push for minsk accords uh uh the the government in kiev says that that the implementation of that agreement will not happen on russia's terms so both sides standing firm and a war as vladimir putin himself said is is going to be unveilable for for for all sides involved so it is not in anyone's interest right absolutely our executive editor joining us from ukraine thank you so much for all those insights and thanks for joining us on beyond we on world is one is now available in your country download the app now and get all the news updates on the move
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