special every thursday on d w. ah, ah, this is the w news live from berlin. russia announces its withdrawing more troops. the defense ministry says drills in the russian controlled crimean peninsula have ended. it's released this video, which it says shows military units leaving crimea to return to their home base. also on the program, a day of unity president laudermill zalinski leads ukraine and celebrations in defiance of suggestions from the west that today could see the start of

a russian invasion. ah, i'm good how golfers welcome to the program. and we begin with the latest developments in the crisis over ukraine. russia says it has begun with drawing more troops this time from the crimea. that's territory. it annexed from ukraine. in 2014, the russian defense minister says military drills of the region are over at the tanks and soldiers are returning to their basis. yesterday, the kremlin announced as it was pulling back some forces from its border with ukraine. western allies have welcomed that statement, but say they need to see evidence that it is actually happening. meanwhile, ukraine is celebrating a day of unity called by president vladimir zalinski. people paraded the flag at the olympic state in the capitol,

sears. they're also being encouraged to fly the flag from buildings and to sing the national anthem. some us officials had previously war that today might see the start of a russian invasion. mrs. lansky had not been message for ukrainians. les this alley, we are all united by our wish to live, to live in peace, to live a happy life with our families, parents and kids. we have the full right to all of this, because we at home here in ukraine. nobody will love our home as much as we do, and nobody can defend our home as we can. i wish you a happy unity day, my blue yellow ones, a happy day of unity of ukraine in the east and west in the south and north. it works only together and when it works, we are strong. she cried. president durham is lincoln speaking there, and let's bring him now a dw correspondent and calmly. he is standing by the city of ha kiff there. the

russian border in easton, ukraine. nic today's the day, the u. s. presidential biden said, could see a russian attack on ukraine, but in fact, russian troops are set to be withdrawing from the border and from a burglar, crimea, and peninsula. what are we to make of all this? well, 1st of all, i think it, we, you know, from history that vladimir putin doesn't like doing what's expected of him. i think this was the american strategy by putting all this intelligence data out there to prevent which at least is incentivized, the criminal from doing what the americans expected them to. so that seems to work if we're to work, if we kind of believe that line, i don't think this is over. russian troops have been building up along ukraine's borders for months. now. this started far before christmas of last year. and in terms of the air troops being moved away, we're having to take the russian's word for this. russia has not allowed his social observers in to its exercises, even though m by the scale. we think those exercises,

those would normally be required. russia has and said, said that they're carrying out many small exercises in parallel rather than one big one, which is the loophole that allows them not to allow in excess observers. here in ukraine, i think people still pretty worried. yes. even we had major cyber attacks against some of ukraine's biggest banks, government websites, government apps that people need in their daily lives at ukraine's ports are still basically out of action because of large scale russian naval drills in the black sea that have busy, scared off and shuttle shipping, so a lot of pressure on ukraine, despite these announcements and a sense here in the ukraine that potentially, that was just a kind of nice gesture towards german chancellor. we'll have schultz who was in moscow recently, but no real end to this crisis. but talk about gestures, today's ukraine's day of unity. how are people celebrating and where does this day come from? well, this is kind of extraordinary. go ahead. this is a national holiday that was announced all of 2 days ago by volume zalinski. ukraine already has a national day and plenty of other holidays, but this was an attempt,

i think, to kind of take the initiative to show that ukraine and its government were not scared. in recent days you had some really nerve assigned some of the country, the richest people getting on planes leaving the country opposition. lawmakers also getting out in the sense that panic was about to start, i think was about showing confidence in com. we've seen flags being raised or government buildings. school children are encouraged to come to lessons in the, in national costume, flags out. yes, but nothing particularly was fred. i think this is more just a sense from volumes. let's give that he wants to get on the ship to come out and talk to ukrainians because he had been under a lot of prism here at home and ukraine. the, he'd basically gone a while disappeared and it wasn't talking to his own citizens who was starting to wonder where the person was w correspondent, knit commonly there in hockey from ukraine. thank you. oh, nick mentioned german chancellor. all of scholes has been conducting high stakes diplomacy this week. first and keith and then in moscow, often shorts. a meeting with you cried the ukrainian president. we saw the 1st

science that russia might be willing to deescalate. just as the chancellor arrive for talks with vladimir putin, it was his most important trip abroad to date. for left charles arrived in moscow to carry out what he sees as one of his key tasks, building bridges with russia. and the bridge is badly needed as the world remains on high alert over a possible russian invasion of ukraine. while sholtes made his way to the kremlin, the russian parliament sent a strong signal to the west, which members of the duma asked their president to recognize to break away regions in eastern ukraine as independent. a move that could kill off what remains of the minsk piece process. difficult preconditions for shots as crisis talks with vladimir putin. the leaders look for ways to close the gap between russia and the west. speaking afterwards to the media both said they were

determined to diffuse tensions on to be a hub. um, well, i'm just gets more tickets courageous and responsible action is now required from everybody else finished or sorry, the line again, i want to say one thing for my generation war in europe has become unthinkable. and we must ensure it stays that way of cover that stuff is heads of state and government. it's our damn responsibility in our job to prevent a military escalation in europe. i tomorrow do it in you can usually do we want war or not, even though of course not we. that is why we have made proposals to start the negotiation process is that this should lead to an agreement of providing equal security for everybody, including our country. just as you grew chair and luscious drama. so more talks are needed for a diplomatic breakthrough. and yet there are small signs, the threat may be subsiding. well for bullets here from roman john to

ranko, who's a t w's w's, russia, ukraine, and eastern europe, department roman, a cautious optimism after shoals as talks a width of protein. is there any sign the russian leader is ready to back down? no, i don't see such signs. so i would say during the press conference with german chancellor of charles, russian president vladimir, which made it very clear that he's not going to make any concessions. and he said that all our demands are on the table and ok, we find some, some of nato and us response to our demands. interesting. in particular about the station in of, of maybe some special types of weapons in europe. but he said, we are not ready to to pick those and untangle the whole package. so

our key demands, and one of them is, know, enlargement and all further enlargement for nato eastwood's. and that remains. so he's not ready to talk about it. so i think in the coming weeks we will probably see the kind of tensions we've seen in the last 2 months are going up and down and parallel. we will see attempt in ukraine to reach a political solution in according to the means agreements. but that is very dangerous because i'm not all in ukraine. are happy with those means agreement. so one of touches key demands that come back to that is a guarantee that nato will not that ukraine will not join nato. i mean that it's been said yesterday, sholtes said that it's not on the agenda at the moment. what else can western leaders do? well, in the current discussion, i miss the of the other demand of russia and that is not weapons for ukraine. so

we've seen in the past weeks, the united states, u. k, and other allies and at our allies delivering weapons to ukraine. ukraine is asking germany to deliver weapons, but this is actually something mr. put in opposers and he demands that to stop. we must talk about that as well as thinking about what the west or western leaders could do. i would say 3 things are important. first, ukraine needs more solidarity. so western leaders should fly to your grain and a show of solidarity at a in here are together with you can ukrainian people we've seen too, too many, not, not, not enough such visits. the 2nd thing is a western think about a big conference for russian demands could be discussed and on the, in that conference, not just ukraine, but other countries like georgia or maybe finland or sweden or austria should participate. and 3rd, i think we need to really talk about a kind of

a peacekeeping mission in ukraine, maybe from the european union, maybe under the always the organization for security in europe. but this is something that i think must be coming in in the near future. interesting suggestions there from our rush analysts roman contra rancor. thank you, robin. and here are some all the other stories making headlines right now. i'm a student, the national says to gray and fight is deliberately killed civilians and gang raped dozens of women and girls in ethiopia. as i'm horror, region previous investigations found evidence of abuses committed by all sides in the year long civil conflict in brazil, flooding and landslides have killed dozens of residents in the hills. above religion. era, firefighters and rescue workers are still searching for survivors. warranties the region have declared an official disaster. the former president of

honduras is in custody now after a stand off with police at his home. united states is demanding the extradition of who and orlando and others accusing him of corruption and drug trafficking. and unders resigned last month after 8 years in office. he denies all charges us gun manufacturer that made the rifle used in one of america's deadliest school shootings has reached historic settlements, settlements with victims families. remington arms has agreed to pay $73000000.00 to relatives of those killed in the 2012 sandy hook. tonight is awards night at the berlin international film festival. despite pandemic restrictions, those stars are back on the red carpet and audiences back in front of the silver screen. so which film will scoop the bell and alice top prize. the golden ban here

is a look at some of the contenders. the standard performance of the festival came from german turkish actress milton captain as the title character in robbie, a corners versus george w bush. he was a job you could nasty for with georgie bush. no, just looking in president defy doncaster via ish o had ins on it's the true story of a loving mother who fought for 5 years to get her son released from guantanamo prison. you miss him? have him, if i show you, but i will describe it misty. this is he gave you louise though, because really captains robert is a force of nature who doesn't lead anything. german bureaucracy, social norms, or the u. s. government stand on the way of getting justice for her son. justice is nowhere to be found in robe of gems. the debut film by mexican bolivian

director natalia lopez, gay ardo, a moody impressionistic look at the violence and brutality of the mexican drug wars . the film divided critics, but many agree it was the most visually arresting film in berlin this year. in both sides of the blade, french director clare denise managers to be both stylish and intimate. her story of a woman caught between 2 men is deceptively simple. but the performances by juliet, be nash and glance. so london are subtle and emotionally devastating to confirm the berlin festivals most moving love story is the chinese film returned to dust director li. really john's gentle tale follows a pair of outcasts and a forced marriage as the e cout in existence in a series of small villages. they're constantly uprooted as farming communities are torn down to make way for urban expansion. nathan,

to see that politics are subtext here. the real story and returned to dust is the growing love between mar and glee, ying, an affection that is never sentimental and all the more affecting for its restraint . you're watching the w news, and that's it from me and the news to him for now, don't go away though after the break, the w business is up with steven bits. there's plenty more news. all websites go call ah, we got some hot tips for your bucket list. ah, man, to corner tread hotspot for food, chair and some great cultural memorials to boot d w, travel off we go. dogs far more intelligent than most people think.