that are amassed around ukraine, michael. all right, fred pleitgen there in moscow, appreciate it. sam kiley speaking of donbas in that region, there s been a lot of activity, ukrainians say the separatists are firing on themselves to try to provoke things. give us a lay of the land where you are. reporter: well, here about 25 miles from the russian border, a few miles beyond that, we are seeing a continued increase in the russian presence. not that that s causing any significant conniptions here. the second biggest city in ukraine. very much the center of its intellectual life. yesterday, michael, i was down close to the front line where there was sporadic shelling. there were eight significant detonations in the time. we were in a little village called new york, believe it or not, right on the front line on a street, the end of which gives way to the rebel-held area, and
attacks on luhansk, and the separatist areas. atrocities, genocide. we saw an op-ed like an opinion piece put out by the russian ministry spokeswoman a few hours slamming all of us in the west not believing the history of genocide, calling hypocrites, not accepting the same language that the united states used in the pat as she put it to justify the sovereignty of other states. so they kind of continue to throw out all kinds of narratives but there s a calm here in moscow today. we re just at this point waiting for some allegation on russian state television, perhaps from russian officials that ukraine has attacked these newly recognized independent states. russia has recognized them, therefore, justifying whatever it is president putin has
the cities today, at least two dozen protests and several dozen people arrest and more than a thousand of them, jim, here in moscow. nic, i believe that putin s police state is going to be having their hands full. and coming up, a united front, and russia s army is encountering more resistance from the ordinary citizens. and could vladimir putin get desperate after many are forced to leave their loved ones behind. were delayed when the e new kd totaled his truck. timber. fortununately, they were covered by progressive, so it wawas a happy ending. for almost everyonone.
of these sanctions. but getting out of russia is not easy right now. if you go to one of moscow s international airports and you look atin the departure boards, all you see is a sea of cancellations because flights to europe, flights to north america, are all called off. now, in terms of what the russian people are hearing from their government, as you said, they have finally been given a death toll, 498 russian service members killed in the first week of fighting in ukraine. that s according to the russian defense ministry.di as you said, the real figures potentially a lot higher. we are not detecting any signs at all that this war has any popular support, here in moscow, at least, and alexey navalny, the imprisoned russian dissident has called for people to take to the main squares of cities across russia, in the coming days, to protest against this war. remember, navalny isst a russia nationalist.an he isn t some bleeding heart human rightsdi liberal. this is a proud russian
by millions of russians. international sanctions are biting already, for example russia s largest airport, sheremetyevo, here in moscow, today it furloughed 20% of its workers. last week, it shut down two of its terminals and took one runway out of service, and that is because passenger traffic has plunged because of sanctions. from flights to food, or rather food shortages, fearing that sanctions could push russia into recession, shoppers have been stocking up big time on essentials. the result sugar has sold out. it s very difficult to find sugar right now here in moscow and a lot of the supermarkets are now limiting the sale of other essentials like vegetable oil, flour and salt, although russian s deputy prime minister today said no need for panic buying, we have all the sugar we need, all the buckwheat we need for everyone. the other thing, by the way, in short supply right now