[000:00:00;00] ah ah, this is a dw news, live from berlin, germany advises citizens to leave ukraine. foreign ministry says germans should check whether their presence in ukraine is essential and if not to leave as soon as possible. this comes as united states warns russia could invade ukraine at any time . also coming up a major police operation in paris that says france bands, canadian style freedom convoys of protesters,

heading for the capital to oppose corona virus restrictions. and at the beijing olympics to veteran american snow borders show, it's not such a youthful sport. after all, we speak to our sports correspondent in china who will also give us the latest on some big controversy. ah, unexpired her welcome to the program. germany has just warned against travel to ukraine and told its nationals to leave the country. following fears that russia is planning an imminent invasion. german foreign minister and a lena bear box said that the crisis was escalating. while on a trip to egypt, she told journalists that she and nato allies were still working on a diplomatic solution. germany is the latest country to issue a travel warning to the region in recent days. and we can bring indeed of your chief international editor richard walker. tell us more about what atlanta burbock had to say if you would. yeah. well,

nick should be speaking just in the last hour on a trip to cairo, where she's on a tour of the middle east. and of course the situation in ukraine is so serious that that, that burst into the agenda there as well. she described the situation there as precarious in ukraine, saying that there hasn't been de escalation in recent days, but rather the opposite. and then setting out what they're doing in terms of german nationals in ukraine. so they are keeping the embassy open at this point in kia they're saying, but they are reducing the head count there, but they're moving out family members of embassy stuff. and other agencies, such as relief agencies and agencies working in ukraine are being told to leave. they're also moving a consulate from the eastern part of the country to the western part of the country . they say that that is a temporary move. and then 2 german nationals who are just on ordinary business and ukraine, their messages that they should consider whether their presence is essential and if

it is not essential that they should leave. and is this comparable to what the americans are doing and is it, is it as alarm as a full evacuation? where i think it's quite interesting to contrast actually with what the americans have been saying because the message from the americans. we heard this from the national security advisor jake sullivan. just yesterday is it is pretty drastic. essentially, the americans are saying to us nationals in the country. if you don't leave, we're not going to come and rescue you. if for some military action does take place and jake sullivan saying that there could be missiles landing and these are not going to district discriminate between people, depending on their nationality. none of that took from the german side of the germans, simply saying that people who are not on essential business should leave the people should consider leaving. so quite a difference in terms of the tone of the message here and the substance of it. and does this and didn't mark a change in germany's policy on the crisis because germany has been in an

uncomfortable position. i think even come under criticism from some of the allies. yeah, well, i think what we see here is germany following other countries as well. and i think they're seeing the evidence on the ground, the that the russian posture in the region is even more threatening now than it has been recently this, this huge exercise going on in belarus just to the north of ukraine. at the moment 30000 russian troops involved in that their naval exercise is going on in the black sea, 30 russian warships taking part in that the germans and the other western countries look at the same evidence thing. all right, this is potentially a time where they have to scale back in the country, but it's true, there has been criticism of germany. germany is generally not going to be the most forthright country on these kind of military matters. they're not going to be out front like the united states. they're not sending weapons. that's really not part of the, of the german political tradition. but i think, broadly speaking,

the west is pretty united on this crisis that we've been seeing so far. there's been a huge amount of consultation going on just yesterday, a big video conference between joe biden and many european powers, including all i've showed a lot of consultation offshore will then be in the kind of lead of the western situation going on monday and tuesday. he's going into key f and to moscow, of course, that's as things stand. now, of course, this, if there is some military action that would be thrown into question. so i think to some extent, some of the differences between germany and other western powers on this have been overweight. and any idea of what shorts may say or needs to say or needs to be seen, you know, doing what the russians for. yeah, i mean that's an interesting question because similar tanius with this greater concern about, about the russian potentially taking minutes reaction is a sense that the, the sematic activities that have been really on like revving up in recent weeks have hit potentially a little bit of

a buffer that was part of because of the so called normal di talks with going on this we can berlin. so that is talks between the russians, the ukrainians, the french and the germans. and these are talks really focused on trying to solve the specific questions around ukraine, between ukraine and the russian side. those talks ended without any success this week. having had a modicum of success in the previous round of talks, a bit of concern that maybe these nobody talks going nowhere a manual my call, the french president was in moscow and he had last week, really trying to push that process if that process is sort of withering now, what does all our sholtes take to care for moscow next week? i asked his spokesman, yesterday, does he have any new initiatives that he's taking with him? and he said no, he simply trying to push along with the existing initial initiative. i think that is part of the concern right now, that the diplomatic movement that may be running out of steam. of course, today we have one important development though,

joe biden and vladimir putin will be speaking on the phone. i think it'll be a lot of interesting what comes out of that conversation to the talking and the traveling continues in an effort to hurt or ok, richard walker's abuse or chief international editor. thanks for that. and for more on these latest developments, we are joined our d. w correspondent mathias building it in q ukrainian capital a t s. germany, as you've just heard, is joining the list of countries asking it citizens to leave ukraine. are people likely to evacuate the feel? i don't expect to run on the airport, but yes, people are likely to evacuate. maybe not all of there may be companies will not evacuate all of this stuff and not everybody is going to leave. but for example, there might be people who bring their families back home if they haven't done so already. and companies will have to re evaluate also with their assurance companies, whether they can keep their staff in the expect business trips to be cut short and

some of this stuff being brought out. so that also makes also sense for many companies. so in the case that there's a per, the escalation, they will not have to evacuate as many people. so i think there will be some, are trickling out of german experts out of ukraine, but maybe not. are everybody booking the last earth plains of flood seats on the plane and, and, and trying to get out as fast as possible. okay, well we'll see how many germans leave it, of course the ukrainians. it's not that easy for them just to leave their home, said ukraine is their home. how are they reacting to this to have foreign nationals being told to leave? are they watching this closely? i think everybody is now watching this closely. many have expressed their am her discontent with these decisions that he left alone or others are feeling alerted. people have been preparing for this, although people are keeping their calm and people are,

are going about their daily business. but many people have taken preparations, have withdrawn, may be some amount of money that will get them through a people have also been reconsidering some people, not many or to maybe just or go abroad for some time and watch it from there for now. ukrainians don't need a visa to go into the shannon area in the european union. um, we don't see him, a massive outlooks or any refugees are out of the country, but i think everybody is now considering their options. people, however, also have a lot of resolved to do what they can to defend their country. people are joining these territorial defense forces, these volunteer brigades that should support the army. in the case of war and germ, we are seeing a very mixed picture here in ukraine. but no panic. just one last question, if i may, the united states has been sounding the alarm of about

a russian invasion of ukraine that could begin at any time to quote them or even during the winter olympics, what's been the reaction to this warning in the capital? well then ukraine has always been calmer than the us about all these warnings. that's true for the government. and that's also true for the population. many i've said while we've had these, these, the cycles of a or of threats and, and a certain d time for, for like 8 years now. um. but in the last few days, the tone of the government has also shifted. they are talking about a serious threat now, they're still not saying that they expect it to happen any time soon, but they're taking this we don't know how seriously they've taken it internally, but in their communication, they've always said don't exaggerate the threat. now the tone this shifting, they're more talking more about the threat now and less about

a being staying calm or i did it, who correspond him at his billing her in care there. and sticking with her story moscow denies having any plans to invade ukraine. but with more than 100000 troops station near the border and a ramp up and military drills, tensions are reaching fever pitch. american president joe barton, is due to speak with russia's 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. there 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, which 1000 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 part of the blake seed 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 of military buildup, threatening rhetoric on a track record of using force against neighbors. of course, that's the reason for being seniors are concerned and being vigilant are ready also to react if they once again use force

against ukraine. told us 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 join now from brussels by our native course on terry schultz . terry, germany also now withdrawing embassy staff and advising citizens to lead ukraine following, you know, as we just heard, similar action by the united states, the binding ministration seems to think we're at a point of outright conflict. are they sharing the intelligence about this with our nato allies? they do seem to think that outright conflict is at least very possible, more possible than it has been up until now. and they are sharing that intelligence you heard from richard that president biden held a video call with key european leaders and last night at nato headquarters. there was a meeting of all 30 nato ambassadors to share the intelligence from the united states . and as something was,

was really striking after this meeting and leading up into it nic. and that's that until now, european countries had really been resisting the usaa moved to pull it, said it to pull their citizens out of ukraine to advise them to leave. and once this intelligence just started coming out yesterday, you saw many, many european allies doing just that, starting with norway than the netherlands and the u. k. and now, of course, we see many more including germany. and that says to me that this intelligence is very credible that the u. s. was able to share with allies exactly what it was that was leading them to believe that indeed an invasion could be imminent. and we just saw, of course, her, the nato secretary general, and that report welcoming american troops to romania, tomatoes, rushing up its military posture in the allied countries that the border ukraine. how much of a concern is that any russian military action could spread beyond ukraine's borders?