up at the corner store or fighting with mol cough cocktails. there is one person that could stop this tomorrow and that is vladimir putin and it is clear this is not a local civil war. the areas where the ukrainian government has taken back control like slovyansk, you re having normal peace, normal civilian life being restored and have seen since the beginning of the conflict what we were hearing from the russian prop began propaganda state, we are now seeing tragically the instability is being caused, is being led by russia and by these irregulars who have been given absolutely terrifying weapons. one thing, though, that i think is really important that s zbig talked about this could be an exit moment for the kremlin and for putin. putin can now say, if he is smart, you know, this is a disaster for him, it has gone
military, they re still unable to retake tikrit, or are they? getting conflicting reported. this is a real key issue. the iraqi army committed to go back and take tikrit. this is a test of the iraqi army. are they capable of dislodging isis? if not, the iraqi army s in much, much worse shape than thought. they re going up there with tanks, artillery, air sport, the full range of military weaponry to dislodge irregulars from the city. so if they can t do this, we ve got real problems ahead of us. isis today declaring itself an islamic state, announcing creation of a caliphate that runs from syria into iraq. how significant is that? i think this telegraphing their intentions. they re not going to be happy with just iraq and syria. they want the whole area. the translation of the name iraq and includes greater syria,
are you hearing any sort of a plan to escalate on the ground to at least get that done? because that i think is when people looking from the outside looking in, makes the government look incredibly weak. right. those irregulars who have occupied government buildings in several cities and towns were supposed to be gone by now, under terms of an agreement reached a week ago, and russia said it would help make that happen. it hasn t. now, there s a question about whether russia has full control over those irregulars, but certainly if vladimir putin had gone on television the other day or did so today, and said, come on, everybody, give it up, they would have a whole lot less of a nationalist standing, and mandate to keep occupying those buildings. the fact that it hasn t happened raises questions about the ukrainian government s ability to do any of this on its own. and were they to actually undertake a military operation,
huge questions about how far they could take it. they do have an army, but it would be no match for the russians. and i want to play something on what president obama said. he s been getting a lot of pressure from senator john mccain about the idea that we re not arming the ukrainians, we re not escalating our own military rhetoric. this is what president obama had to say about the idea of drawing the red line in general and the u.s. s obligation. the implication of the question, i think, is that each and every time a country violates one of those norms, the united states should go to war. or stand prepared to engage militarily. if it doesn t, then somehow we re not serious about those norms. well, that s not the case. so, ann, talk about the conundrum, that s the president speaking in japan, that the u.s. will not go to war over this. but you see the military escalation on the part of the irregulars.
simferopol. you can see the parliament behind me guarded by a number of irregular forces. but human rights watch is one of many who have put out a warning this weekend saying there s been a great deal of intimidation, threats and violence against ukrainians and against dtatars who oppose the move by crimea to join russia. one gentleman that we spoke to a couple of days ago who runs a military hospital here, ukrainian, we interviewed him in his hospital which has been raided by irregulars, he was picked up last night by three gunmen according to witnesses and disappeared. so a pretty worrying backdrop. the arrangements for the vote are going ahead. the ballot papers are ready. the polling stations are ready. they ll open at 8:00 tomorrow morning. and it does seem against this backdrop that there s little real doubt about the result, t.j. ian williams for us in crimea, thank you so much. coming up next, the big p.r. push for the so-called young