this is d.w. news live from berlin a widely anticipated prisoner exchange has taken place between russia and ukraine there were emotional scenes as families were reunited airports in moscow and kiev. also coming up. a blow to indian attempts to put a rover on the moon the national space agency tries to find out what went wrong the signal from the chandra into space craft disappeared after it entered its final descent to the lunar surface. and more than 70000 people are in need of food and

water in the bahamas after their homes and communities were destroyed by hurricane dorian authorities say the final death toll will be staggering. omarion to evanston thanks for joining us. a long awaited exchange of prisoners between russia and ukraine has taken place the swap is being viewed as a step towards easing tensions between the neighboring countries and could also increase the chances of resolving the conflict in eastern ukraine 5 years of fighting between troops and russian backed separatists has left more than 13000 people dead. their 1st steps of freedom back on home soil so easy for former prisoners arriving in kiev. a handshake from the president

is nothing compared to the embrace of a loved one. some had been separated for months others for years never knowing what would come next most of the knowledgeable status kept on changing we heard that the prisoner swap was going to fall through. the end of august it was a difficult time i couldn't sleep for 5 days. they only told us today at 4 in the morning that we should pack and someone would pick us up at the time before the flight just crawled ukraine's president followed him is alinsky looked on as his campaign promise became a reality it's the 1st move he says towards ending the conflict with moscow we have to do all the steps we need this horrible war i think we feel guilty about this man received special attention filmmaker all the sense of ukraine's most famous political prisoner he was captured in crimea in 2014 just as the territory

was invaded and annexed by russia. also released 24 sailors captured by russia last year in a naval pursuits. at the same time another plane carrying prisoners released by ukraine landed in moscow but even as they disembark hundreds more remain imprisoned on both sides international observers including the european union have urged ukraine and russia to maintain the momentum towards peace. well for more on this story we're joined now by our correspondent nick connelly who's in moscow and kiev post editor matthew come for who's in the ukrainian capital welcome to you both matthew starting with you this prisoner swap was long awaited it was even cancelled just a few weeks ago so what made it happen in the end. well it was indeed long awaited and of course it was

a campaign promise for president volume it is a lengthy but it wasn't exactly canceled a week or 2 ago rather there was information that it would happen and the information proved to be false as for what made it happen we know that there have been talks between between many intermediaries between ukraine and russia as well as talks between president bush as lenski of ukraine and president vladimir putin of russia another sticking point here was a man named someone who was a fighter on the side of russia backed separatists in the done in the region of danielle school bus who is a witness or even a suspect in the downing of the mh 17 flight in 2014 which led to the deaths of 298 people russia wanted him included in the exchange we learned from ukrainian officials but but it was a difficult decision for ukraine because he is also wanted in the netherlands and giving him up would mean that he would be less available for questioning in the end

he was included in the exchange we saw him get off the plane in moscow that was definitely a difficult decision in ukraine. but we have been seeing some pictures of prisoners arriving at the airport in ukraine some very joyous pictures nic tell us what the view is in russia how are russians perceiving this president exchange. well this is a bit of an asymmetrical story in a way this is not the same huge domestic story here russia as in ukraine most of the people who headed back from kiev to moscow today all the household names here in russia with the exception maybe of killed the shin skate he's a journalist who headed up the ukrainian branch of the russian news agency ria someone who was accused of treason by the ukrainian authorities of trying to support russia's takeover. of crimea through his journalism these laws these people even all ukrainian citizens who fought to separate is that not even russian. citizens i think this is less important for the russian domestic audience than for

russia's dealings with the western world we've seen vladimir putin recently meet a man on my call this is very clearly as sign a gesture of goodwill something that is destined to prove russia is negotiating with good faith and that i think is the way to really understand this from a russian perspective. and matthew we mentioned that among the ukrainian prisoners who were released by russia and arrived in kiev today was filmmaker sense off just how significant is his release. well that since all of his the most famous of the political prisoners were held in russia in fact in some ways you could call him a symbol of the political prisoners international organizations have called for his release there have been protests in ukraine for his release he is very famous and so this is significant in the sense that it's a big victory for a zillion ski and of course this release is hugely significant for the prisoners former prisoners themselves and their families at the same time since over was

a figure who is a figure who at some points his presence sort of sucked the air out of the room for other political prisoners they were ignored because he gained so much attention and when he arrived in ukraine he told the press that the fight wasn't over they need to free the other political prisoners who were held in russia but at the same time his removal from the political prisoner discourse put actually lead to less attention to political prisoners held in russia after this exchange the most famous faces of this struggle for freeing political prisoners are now free so what comes next for those who remain in russia and it may be a 100 or even more people who remain in russia. and just briefly if you can the ukrainian president selenski has said this is the 1st step towards ending the war between ukraine and russia is he right could we see peace in the near future. and i think that's very ambitious talk and make sense for the let's give is definitely a huge boost to him as you mentioned his election campaign was built on humanitarian

concerns showing interest in everyday people's sufferings through this war i think this was a lot hanging fruit this was a resolute easy thing to do this is not something that really gets on anyone's provokes much of a reaction from anyone apart from. approval i think going forward is going to be a lot more difficult they're going to talk about things like some kind of autonomy for the eastern ukrainian regions if they were to be reintegrated some kind of amnesty for the people who fought with the separatists all of that is going to be much more contentious inside ukraine and russia will not be in a hurry to give up its leverage over ukraine without some kind of guarantees in return so ambitious talk here there is reason for optimism given that both sides have been willing to talk direct and talk very intensively but no real clear sign how they can move on from this in a hurry all right nick connelly reporting from moscow and matthew cover in kiev

thanks very much to you both. let's get a check now of some of the other stories making news around the world police in hong kong have trying to disperse protesters who gathered at a train station in an bid to disrupt traffic to the airport pro-democracy activists have vowed to continue their protests despite hong kong leader carrie lamb announcing the withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill. german chancellor angela merkel has called for the rights and freedoms of hong kong residents to be respected that's she spoke during a visit to china she made the comments after meeting with chinese premier league in the capital beijing americal also aims to strengthen business ties with china. iran says it seized a foreign tongue boat and arrested 12 filipino crew members the head of the coast guards of the vessel was part of an oil smuggling operation the seizure comes amid tensions in the gulf after the united states unilaterally withdrew from

a nuclear deal with iran. hurricane dorian is speeding towards canada after making landfall in the us states of north and south carolina forecasters expected to bring hurricane force winds to parts of canada's eastern province of nova scotia late on saturday the storm has already left a trail of devastation behind us and thousands of people have been fleeing the island to escape the catastrophic aftermath of the storm the death toll is now at $43.00 but it is expected to rise sharply. a cruise ship full of evacuees from the bahamas the people on board have survived an apocalypse and for now they're the lucky ones. desperation is setting in for those left behind who've lost everything. even the old nobody calls on the thought there will be normal poles who have nothing no no no power flow why don't.

i it's 5 everything you say for thing is i mean. as the scale of the destruction becomes clear international aid efforts are ramping up. but it's a complicated task the destruction is so widespread. we have 2 major islands in the bahamas grand bahama and abaco and oftentimes we forget about the many keys around the clothes that particular day themselves. we have to put a modest focus on those keys because we have residents living on those keys as well in the us dorian made landfall as a category one storm hitting the coast of north carolina with battering waves storm surges and heavy rains caused extensive flooding while powerful winds and

a series of tornadoes ripped the roofs off houses and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people. dorian has lost a little steam as it barrels on towards eastern canada packing sustained winds of up to 145 kilometers per hour is forecast to touch down in nova scotia later on saturday. india's space agency is analyzing data to find out why it lost contact with a spacecraft carrying a moon lander it appears that challenger into orbit or was just a short distance from the lunar surface when communication broke down the mission set out in july and to explore the uncharted territory of the moon's south pole. and it only a correspondent joins us now from the indian capital delhi phone you may have president moody did look somewhat disappointed there but he made an effort to reassure the nation there was much to be proud of just how big

a setback is this for him. well definitely the response across the nation despite the disappointment of what made the pedia off the program has been the support is strong which is india's space program the prime minister himself and others in the administration as well as civilians came out on social media to express support but of course india was trying to be the 4th nation just after the us russia and china to make a successful soft landing on the morn so this is definitely a setback however india does have a very ambitious space program going forward as well for its stroll in the past the mandate had been to help out over the agriculture to have about me meterological predictions this attempt to be a part of the space race started on the very recently there's already been one more mission and it's going to mission to mars but this also hopes to set up for the missions and by mr moore the highs hoped has expressed some hope to get

a man on the moon by plane 22. all right well we don't know exactly what happened to the lander there's still a doing investigations about that but we do know that the tangerine 2 is still orbiting the moon so does this mean the mission is somehow continuing yes definitely the mission is continuing the scientists from a store have pointed out that this mission had 3 parts there was in all but orlando and over all over the land is what the control room lost contact with and hence the rover as well but the all the top is going to continue orbiting the moon over the next you know it has all of these sent images off the lunar surface the rover was only supposed to be functioning for about 14 days to collect information but the all but i will continue orbiting the moon and perhaps even try to get images off the roof or off the lander to find out what exactly happened as scientists continue

to analyze the data all right now mission giants 12 reporting from delhi thank you very much indeed q. you're up to date now and news coming up next reporter on location omarion evans dean from me and the entire team here in berlin and thanks for watching. the 1st thing in school in the film. the 1st clueless. doris grand moment arrives join the iranian tango on a journey very early on when you know we're going to return to the wrong and the running returns home.