the week of diplomacy is ending with fireworks and not the good kind russia and belarus have kicked off their joint military drill 10 days of non-stop training we're talking about lethal firepower here around 30 000 troops two battalions of the s-400 missiles su-35 fighter jets and nuclear-capable iskandar missiles simply put it's the biggest european deployment since the cold war the pictures are flattery it's winter season here so the training grounds are covered in snow you've got tanks rolling in formation you've got fighter jets zooming through the skies it looks good on your television but i'll tell you what it's unnerving here in kiev these drills are happening near the belarus ukraine border it's a short hop from where i'm standing around 200 kilometers that's all there's a highway running down from the border to kiev so these 10 days are going to be crucial nato says these military drills are our rules that the real plan is to invade ukraine so cave is not taking any chances they are staging military drills of their own and the timetable the timetable i'm sorry is the same as russia's 10 days now we don't know how many ukrainian soldiers are involved in this drill but the fire power is impressive we've got bherakta drones and anti-tank javelin missiles on display the difference is russia has a 100 committed partner belarus you see these drills demonstrate two things one russia's military might and two russia's control over belarus a couple of years back this was not the case when russia invaded crimea in 2014 beraros did not recognize the move it was only in 2021 that lukashenko made a u-turn so what has changed now his position in belarus lukashenko needed putin's help to crush the anti-government protests since then they're best friends what about ukraine's friends all talk and little action their major concern is their own economy specifically their energy needs the import of russian gas has slowed down in the last few days shipments at the european entry point in slovakia have dropped 40 percent so gas prices are climbing in europe europe may say its priority is to prevent a war but their actual priority is to protect their gas imports which explains why they are pushing for talks one round of talks happened today in berlin they called the normandy talks this is a normandy format these talks include four nations russia ukraine germany and france why is it called the normandy format because it was first pitched during a meeting in normandy in france and what do these talks cover the insurgency in eastern ukraine you've got the government on one side and pro-russian separatists on the other so far around 14 000 people have died in this war in eastern ukraine is a resolution than possible if you ask russia or europe they have one answer the minsk agreement signed in 2015 they make it seem like a one-stop solution so what's in this agreement five major things number one an immediate ceasefire number two a withdrawal of heavy weaponry number three a dialogue to hold elections in this region number four kiev regains control of the rope russian border and number five all foreign fighters withdraw now president zielenski of ukraine is not a fan of this agreement and you can understand why this is the case the separatists are backed by russia their weapons their funds everything comes from moscow yet russia says they're not bound by this agreement in fact the word russia is not even a part of the text so zielinski wants to reboot the talks he has drawn a few red lines himself most of them boil down to one idea no compromise on ukraine's sovereignty and this has put most of europe in a tough spot they want a quick resolution at the same time they cannot openly abandon ukraine the result is a strange strategy in europe take britain for instance prime minister boris johnson was in brussels today he visited the nato headquarters and he talked tough on permit russia but his foreign secretary was in moscow a few hours back she held a press conference with foreign minister sergey lavrov now i know moscow is cold but even by those standards this presser was chilling [Music] i'm honestly disappointed that what we have is a conversation between a dumb and a deaf person it seems like we listen but don't hear at least our most detailed explanations fell on unprepared soil they say russia is waiting until the ground freezes like a stone so its tanks can easily cross into ukrainian territory i think the ground was like that today with our british colleagues from which numerous facts that we produced [Music] india too finds itself finds itself in a bind so far new delhi has refused to pick sides in this battle but russia's ambassador in new delhi is sending out feelers he says that russia is india's most important defense partner and that moscow is not just selling weapons but also transferring technology he added that russia was not looking to mediate between india and china interestingly now is this an assurance or is it a nudge depends on which way you look at it if the west imposes sanctions russia is going to turn to india to sell their weapons to also sell their natural gas so these 10 days won't be tough just for europe they'll be tough for the whole world our hopes are still pinned on diplomacy but as this week comes to a close we have seen very little progress on that front emanuel macron's moscow mission was a misfire so was britain's mission today on is now available in your country download the app now and get all the news on the move
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