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00:00to the war in Ukraine which has entered a dangerous new phase with Vladimir Putin putting

00:05Russian nuclear forces on high alert. Live now to our team of reporters, First to Seven News,

00:12Chief Reporter Chris Reason in Ukraine. Rezo, when they start banding around the N-word,

00:18that is a really serious threat, is it? That's horrific.

00:22Koshy, it doesn't get any more serious than this. This is an explicit nuclear threat and one that

00:30has left the international community quite simply stunned and also condemning of the Russian

00:37president's move today. It came out of the blue with Vladimir Putin basically saying because the

00:43NATO threats and also because of the sanctions starting to bite, he wanted to put his nuclear

00:48deterrent force at a combat ready status. This is unprecedented in Putin's rule. We haven't seen

00:55this before. As I say, condemned by the international community, observers saying it's perhaps a clear

01:01sign of panic and maybe even desperation that the conflict here in Ukraine isn't going as well as

01:08the Russian president had planned. Still no cities fallen, no great progress in Kiev overnight, almost

01:14quiet there. One city where the Russians are making inroads, Kharkiv. But apart from that,

01:21they are at a stalemate. The Ukrainian forces, both professional and reservist or civilian,

01:27have been putting up an extraordinary fight and pushing the Russians back. There was almost a

01:31confident swagger to the Ukrainian president today, Zelensky. Let's have a listen to his words from this

01:38afternoon. Had planned to conduct a blitzkrieg operation to force Ukraine on its knees, break us

01:47down, make us retreat and capture our capital, Kiev. None of this has happened. We are bleeding,

01:57but we are inflicting disastrous losses on the enemy. Now, there's been one breakthrough and this

02:02couldn't have come at a more opportune time, given what's happened with Putin's threats here. But

02:06we've finally seen a breakthrough and potential for peace talks happening today with Zelensky saying

02:13he would agree to meet with Russian officials, not in Belarus, as originally planned, because that

02:18country's been helping Russia, but right on the border between the two countries. Those talks,

02:24a lot of people hoping, but a lot of worries too, that they might not reach the breakthrough we need.

02:29Koshi.

02:30Ash Mulaney in Washington, DC. The US has slammed Russia's decision to put its nuclear forces on

02:36high alert. Has the US gone to a high level of alert as a result?

02:46No word yet from the White House, Koshi, on that. But we do know that behind the scenes,

02:51they're considering ramping up those sanctions even further. And it is partly those sanctions that

02:58seems to have angered Vladimir Putin so much. The US ambassador to the UN today was asked whether she

03:06believed that Putin was capable of using biological or chemical weapons. And she said she believes

03:11nothing is off the table with this guy. Let's take a listen now to the White House response

03:16after learning about this news from Vladimir Putin.

03:19This is really a pattern that we've seen from President Putin through the course of this

03:24conflict, which is manufacturing threats that don't exist in order to justify further aggression.

03:31And the global community and the American people should look at it through that prism.

03:35This is clearly a significant escalation in tensions between Russia and the West,

03:42but the international community united against Russia's aggression. Here on home soil, though,

03:49America's bitter political divisions have been laid bare once again overnight with the former

03:54President Donald Trump condemning Russia's actions, but blaming Joe Biden once again. Take a listen.

04:01The Russian attack on Ukraine is appalling. It's an outrage and an atrocity that should never

04:09have been allowed to occur. Of course, he's smart. But the real problem is that our leaders are dumb.

04:19As this situation escalates in Ukraine, the US president isn't here at the White House,

04:27but he's at home in Delaware. He returned there over the weekend for a memorial. The White House said

04:32that he took a secure phone call this morning with his national security team to get the latest

04:38on the situation on the ground. Koshy?

04:40Hey, Hubert Feld, you're in London. Extraordinary scenes right across Europe where anti-war protesters

04:46have come out in their thousands.

04:48Yeah, Koshy, one of the biggest demonstrations was in Berlin, where 100,000 people gathered

04:54outside the Brandenburg Gate, an incredible symbol from conflicts past, with similar displays of

05:01support for Ukraine in London, Prague, Madrid, Rome, and further protests against the war in Russia too,

05:08with 900 people now detained. The conflict has also upended decades of post-World War II foreign

05:14policy in Germany, with the Chancellor announcing an increase in defence spending. Now, in a country

05:21that has been rather pacifist since 1945, that is a big deal, and it follows a decision to send lethal

05:27weapons to a conflict zone for the first time since the end of the Nazi regime. And when you add in

05:33the decision not to take gas from a new Russian pipeline, it has been a seismic few days in German

05:39politics caused by Vladimir Putin and the Russian invasion. The EU as well is further tightening the

05:46screws with a run on ATMs in Moscow. There is the prediction that the economy may fall apart on Monday

05:53when businesses and banks try to reopen there. The EU now vowing to shut down its entire airspace to

06:00Russian airlines and ban Russia today and Sputnik, two Kremlin-owned news outlets. The European Union as

06:07well is stepping into the world of defence spending. For the first time ever, the European Union will

06:14finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack.

06:21This is a watershed moment. Ukrainian refugees continue to cross borders into neighbouring EU countries

06:30as well. The UN now says 380,000 people have left Ukraine and crossed over as refugees. Exactly

06:40how the EU is going to deal with this mass movement of people will be discussed at a series of meetings

06:46throughout this week in Brussels, Koshi. All right Hugh, keep us up to date.

Ukraine crisis Vladimir Putin puts nuclear forces on alert 7NEWS

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