ah, love and respects ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin. the threat is high. the risk a minute, top us officials warning about a potential russian invasion of ukraine. the biden administration is urging americans to leave ukraine now saying there will be no rescue if hostilities begin . also coming up at the bay, jing olympics to veteran american snow borders show it is not such a youthful sport. after all, we speak to our sports correspondent in china. the will also give us the latest on

some big controversies ah, unexpired. welcome to the program. the by new administration is sounding the alarm over a potential russian incursion into ukraine, saying the risk is now high enough. the threat is immediate enough. moscow denies having any plans to invade, but with more than 100000 troops station near ukraine's border, and a ramp up in military drills. western allies are worried and attack is imminent. u . s. president joe botton is due to speak with russia's president vladimir putin later today in the hope of averting all out war. more activity on all sides of the ukraine crisis. russia's ministry of defense released footage of navy ships arriving in savannah to pull bay on the black sea. in the russian annexed crimean

peninsula. they're here taking part in large scale landing drills. the situation makes many ukrainians uneasy. it's not a pleasant feeling. believe me, to understand that you and circled by the russian troops from bella with schwann's, follow them kilometers more than 1000 from the east. and the last couple of days, sir, russia actually close to the entire a z o c and the the particles do. blake see actually excess ukrainian ports to the black sea. the united states wanted citizens out of harm's way immediately. president joe biden has urged all americans to leave ukraine. if a russian attack on ukraine proceeds, it is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians without regard to their nationality. a subsequent ground invasion

would involve the onslaught of a massive force with virtually no notice communications to arrange. a departure could be severed and commercial. transit halted, while civilians pack up security forces are coming in the other direction. around a 1000 us soldiers arrived in poland to add to the $4000.00 service members already stationed there and on romanian black sea coast. a 1000 strong strike force rolled in from a u. s. bass and germany. nato secretary general was there when they arrived. he spoke of the importance of boots on the ground as a deterrent to russia's military buildup. 2 which he called unjustified so the combination old military buildup, fit the rhetoric ah, a track record of using force against neighbors. of course, that's the reason for her being a cedars to concerned and her being vigilant on read the also to

ah, react if her there once again used force against the ukraine. although the u. s. hasn't sent ground forces to ukraine. it continues to supply weapons to the beleaguered country. part of a $200000000.00 security package meant to keep this crisis from escalating into an outright conflict. and for more on this, i'm join now from brussels by our nato correspondent terry schultz. a terry, the biden. white house seems to believe at this point that outright conflict is where we're headed. are they sharing the intelligence behind their thinking with nato allies? they are nic as they have done throughout this crisis last night. nato ambassadors met in a 7 p. m. session. here in brussels, a pretty unusual timing, but obviously the information was urgent. and what we saw coming out of this meeting was definitely evidence that allies see the u. s. assessments as credible

because we saw a change in their postures on the safety of their own citizens. in ukraine, up until now european governments and the european union as a whole, have been very reluctant to follow the u. s. in advising citizens to get out of ukraine because of the danger that you said openly, that it feels this imposes to higher price on ukraine, on its economy, and on the well being of it, of ukrainian citizens there who would be left behind. but now after this meeting, we saw a country by country european government, by european government come out and advise their nationals to leave ukraine. the latest is that the u. s. embassy is evacuating most of its personnel from the capitol here. and we are going to see other governments do the same. i, i project and tara, we just saw on that report. the nato secretary general welcoming american troops to romania, tomato is ratcheting up its military posture in the allied countries of border ukraine. as you know,

how much concern is there that any russian military action could actually spread beyond ukraine's borders? the destabilizing factor of these forces is already evident in the nervousness of those allies that border, not just ukraine, but also beller ruse in bella rue. so there are joint exercising is taking place right now with russia. and nato says that there are more russian military assets now in beller roost than seen since the end of the cold war. so it's not just on the border with ukraine that we're seeing this build up now. and nato's job is to both deter russia from thinking it could step even one foot across the border into nato territory. but also to reassure those allies, some of whom have a very, very dark history with, with russian occupation, soviet occupation and terry jo bought in vladimir putin. we'll be talking about the phone today. we understand any idea of what we can expect. i think we can expect to one of the most stud chileya conversations ever to take place between washington

and moscow, and i'm sure there been some pretty chilly ones in the past. now, the biden administration has made crystal clear to the kremlin just what a high price it would pay if it dare to, to take further steps against ukraine. certainly further steps against any nato ally and the kremlin has not seemed to be listening has not been de, toward, at all as we see by this continuing build up. so president biden will be making even more clear if that's possible to president putin, that this would be a huge mistake. ok, terry schultz in brussels. thanks so much for that. let's have a look now at some of the other stories making use around the world. mean mars military government has begun releasing prisoners as part of an amnesty to mark the countries union day around $800.00 prisoners are due to be, pardon me, and more has been in turmoil since last year's qu, with more than 1500 protesters killed during a military crackdown over 12000 arrested. mexico's president has

vowed there will be 0 tolerance after another journalist was shot dead, a bear lopez who ran an online news site was killed late on thursday. his was the 5th such killing this year. the mexico routinely ranks as one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists. according canada says, authorities may remove protesting truckers who have blocked the biddies border. crossing with united states. it says the truckers must leave the ambassador bridge by saturday evening, days of demonstrations against vaccine mandates for drivers have paralyzed cross border trade. and the truckers protest in canada has sparked a copycat action in france. thousands of protesters are heading for paris in so called freedom convoys. the city has been demonstrations saying the risks of public order is too high. but opponents of corona virus restrictions are determined to

reach the capital. french police are preparing for anything as convoys of demonstrate as descend on paris. members of the self styled freedom convoys are hoping to blockade roads in the capital to protest against coven measures. many have been inspired by similar truck protests in canada, which have shut down central ottawa and cut off border crossings into the us. but the french convoys a made up of a range of vehicles, driven by citizens who are fed up with frances coven restrictions. this you left with a full, i'm here to defend all of our freedoms and especially against the vaccine policy. of course, an o q archives, whatever they all plan on. i'm out there, douglas fed up with the dictatorship they've imposed on as the 2 years. and it's important to support people in this movement. while frances vaccine pass is a common source of anger, demonstrate as represent

a mix of causes. rising energy prices are another major issue, an echo of the yellow vest protests that rocked the country in 2018 and 19 with presidential elections only a few months away. the french government has expressed some sympathy with protesters, but it doesn't want the movement hijacked by political opponents. the government also eased restrictions further on friday, announcing that mosques will no longer be required indoors from the end of february . but for many making the long drive towards paris, it's too little too late. and we have some breaking news coming in. the german government is now advising citizens to leave ukraine as soon as possible. the foreign ministry has just issued a travel warning, ours, after american authorities issued similar advice to it. citizens warning that a russian invasion could take place at any time. united states is also evacuating

its embassy in the ukrainian capital. give several other countries including britain, denmark last year, and estonia have also advise their citizens to leave. and let's bring in our chief international editor richard walker for more. tell us more about the german government announcements will. yeah, that's right, nick, this is really just happened in the last few minutes. so the foreign ministry has posted a travel warning on its website. this is the place where issues travel warnings as a little bit less categorical than what we're hearing from some countries at the moment. but it is advising that germans, if they are in ukraine at the moment that they should consider if their presence there is essential. and if it is not, they should leave the country very soon. and explaining this by setting out the reasoning for this being. obviously the military tensions between russia and ukraine, the build up of the troops and that this has intensified in recent days. so similar thinking from what we're hearing from other countries, but we have that,

that little kind of slight difference that saying that it should be just like only if your presence in ukraine is not essential. you should leave. but what we're expecting to hear from is the foreign minister and alina babcock. she's currently touring the middle east. she's in egypt right now. we're about to hear from her and a press conference shortly. obviously we will look at that what she says in the press conference and give an update. ok, and we're going to let you go. watch that pretty soon. but let me just ask you one last question. before you go, does this come as a surprise to you that germination? no, it doesn't mean we've seen this. this wave of announcements from other western states coming in of the last 24 hours. it is clear that the united states is, is increasingly concerned an invasion, or some kind of military intrusion could happen in the next few days. warning that it could even happen while the impacts is still take place. there had been speculation that the russians wouldn't move until after the olympics was of diplomatic reasons. and, and of course that it, that kind of intelligence is getting to all of the western countries at the moment

. so i think no surprise at the germans doing this, but i'm interested to hear the detail of what and lean about. the foreign minister says about why they're not just saying everyone should leave why they're just saying any people without a central business should leave. okay, richard walker or chief international i referred in say, and we are going to go, i think at this point to give that is building a who is in kill mathias. can you hear me now? yes, i can. yeah. and what do you think is going to be happening now? once germans get this news? are people likely to evacuate? any idea? well, there hasn't been on any official, a plan to evacuate people. it's an advice to leave the country. i guess flights are going to be booked out quickly for the next few days. there are only so many flights from keith to germany or their flights to or the major airports in germany, of course. but it is not

a major hop for germans. german companies. i think her, the situation here is now of course getting a bit tensor and people are getting very wary off what's happening. although ukrainians to this point still carry on with their lives. there is no panic buying or anything. and the currency exchange rates are also stable. let me ask you about the ukrainians. the germans can leave. they have passports that allow them to do so . ukrainians need a visa, they just can't travel in the shank area or how, how is the temperature there amongst people? do they do they feel trapped? are they worried about the future? definitely worried about the future, although some people during the past few weeks. i mean this has been building up and the have been earlier warnings not by germany, but by the u. s. for people to a stop, all non essential, travel, evacuation of non essential stuff,

of the embassy advice of evacuation, not an education, and all of this and ukraine, and it's have stayed calm and they have always said this has been going on for 8 years. it's another provocation. let's, let's be ready, but let's see what happens and the mood is still, let's be ready, but let's see what happens. but of course this is much more real. this is much closer still people of course are, are, there are still hopes, of course, that this might be somehow averted and or, or that somehow people will be able to carry on with their life. but for now it's are prepared but don't panic. ok met his billing or in the ukrainian capital kid with some insight on the german announcement which just broke that it is at germany is asking it's nationals to lead ukrainian. go now to brussels in our natal correspondent terry schultz. as promised earlier, terry germany now withdrawing embassy staff and citizens are following

a similar action by the united.