conferences 2022. here on d. deline ah ah! this is dw news live from berlin. a warning from the u. s. president. he says vladimir putin has made up his mind to invade ukraine. we have reasonably, the russian forces are planning to attend to attack and crank in the coming week. the coming days that warning after another day of high level talks with western allies. what does joe biden still believe? diplomacy has a chance. we'll get the latest from washington. moscow denies planning innovation

of ukraine as it prepares tests, it's ballistic missiles. at the same time, reports of hostilities and ukraine separate is controlled east plus deadly storms. batter northern europe. britain is bearing the brunt. record winds have already ripped the roof off a giant stadium in london. ah, i'm aaron tilton. it's good to be with us. you as president joe biden says, he's convinced that russian president putin has decided to further invade ukraine. he said, washington had substantial intelligence to back the claim. biden gave the warning after a call with leaders of major u. s. allies. we have reasonably, the russian forces are planning to attend to attack ukraine. in the coming week. the coming days, we believe that they will target ukraine's capital o'keefe,

a city of 2800000 innocent people, make no mistake. if russia pursues his plans, it will be responsible for kit catastrophic and needless or of choice. united states and our allies are prepared to defend every inch of nato territory from any threat to our collective security as well. we also will not send troops in to fight in ukraine, but we will continue support ukrainian p. i'm now joined by d. w. stuff on simon's in washington, so joe biden seems convinced that russia intends to invade. do we know how the, what's or respond of this conflict turns hot? well, we have heard the most blunt commons so far from the president, i think with what he just said. you're absolutely right. um, but yeah, the u. s. is says the president and say his administration are prepared to us in impose very, very,

very severe sanctions on russia. so with nato alice with european partners, and they're working actually, and this is a quote from a press conference conference the earlier today from the white house on the finalization of a severe fine old package sanctions package. and what is in this package of sanctions? it's of course, final financial sanctions cutting or russia out of the global market when it comes to financing and export controls. meaning that those sanctions are, will be then designed to not allow a russia to import anything from. yeah, the european union and the united states, which would be says the white house, a strategic loss for a russia and a calamity for a president put. but as you pointed out and what the president pointed out there seems to be

a waning waning conference in the chance of to mob diplomacy for ukraine right now . oh right. so it does seem that there's a lack of competence in a diplomatic solution, but can there be any type of diplomatic path out of this or crisis from the perspective of washington? why sing kid that was in the still hopeful americans are still hopeful and the white house is still hopeful. and there is a meeting scheduled for next week between anthony blink and secretary of state and a russian foreign minister survey love off. this is supposed to be happening at the end of the week, 24th of february, apparently, but the president made really clear that if, of course, russia also for and letting me put an offer for an invasion into ukraine before this meeting happens, then. and he is potentially right with his assessment that is letting me put in. nobody made his mind up on a invasion and on an attack on ukraine, and that them a promise he has no chance. however,

i think so far as of now everybody wants to actively here in the united states. he in washing no, probably also in european capitals. give diplomacy still a chance that was stephan simons, join us from washington. thank you. the west has russian now has up to 190000 troops positioned along its border with ukraine to morrow. moscow plans military drills of its nuclear arsenal. a show of strength that nate to says is an attempt to intimidate. meanwhile, moscow back separate is, are evacuating civilians from eastern ukraine to russia, claiming the retaining army is planning an attack o wanting to the people of genetics that it's time to go off. the heads of the separatist regions announced evacuation plans with the dental guy in the what the president of ukraine for lot of years lensky will soon order the military to go on the offensive implemented plan to invade that done yet. and new hans people's

republics territory, they wouldn't have knew it. as of today, february 18th, a mass centralized evacuation of the population to the russian federation has been organized. women, children, and the elderly are among the 1st to be evacuated, packed on to buses, bound for russia's neighbouring roast of region, despite yet again deny any plan. military action author belie reiterate that the military and political leadership of ukraine doesn't plan and are not conducting offensive operations in ukraine's east. the only option for the occupation of the people and territory that is acceptable to us is the political and diplomatic one. it will addition a clinic yet it's the separatists of up their attacks and it's homes like these on their side of the front line, lou. hence that have been caught in the firing line. local say, shelling has escalated lately, but she didn't have your new book recently. it has been quiet. and then the last 2

days, every now and then they shoot. every now and then they shoot la la la la, la, la, la, la tour rocher, the da nets to has seen increased attacks. a car bomb was detonated in the heart of the city on friday evening. the reported owner, the head of the cept just regions military was not inside of the time. the explosion comes just days of us and its allies warned about potential false flag attacks by russia for president putin. the solution to the current crisis lies with kevin. if you're still with you, a key will hockey of needs to do is sit down at the negotiating table with representatives of dumbass and agree on political military, economic and humanitarian measures to end the conflict. and the sooner this happens, the better. but unfortunately, right now, we are seeing the opposite and aggravation of the situation and on best person to them. but with kevin, its allies still warning of impending russian invasion, de escalation appears a distant prospect for more on the crisis in ukraine. i'm now joined by d. w. 's,

nick connelly and she of so nick shelling has intensified in recent days in the region and thousands of people have been evacuated. what's your read of the situation? well, things are definitely hosing up in don bass in that eastern ukrainian region that has seen war since 2014. but where strange enough things had been a bit quieter in recent months where we had that huge russian troop build up along ukraine's other borders. and very little in the way of fighting in recent weeks up till basically last 2 days, where we've seen even a kindergarten on the ukraine controlled side and being shells. although no pupils wounded m images. people back in the bomb shelters where they hadn't been for years, really a very clear escalation. and something people here in care of the government would say is a sign that these separatists are basically at the beck and call of the kremlin, able to dial at the pressure in ukraine when russia is kelly's claiming to draw back tanks and weaponry on other fronts. and, but a really weird, weird situation,

different reports coming of explosions in the hans today. the deceiving rather than gas pipelines, images of huge cues of people trying to buy fuel to get out conflicting reports, whether men in basically military age, between 1855 are being allowed to leave the, cept his regions where they're being encouraged or indeed forced to stay and sign up for some kind of military action. so very am nervous and worrying situation that we have people here didn't quite to give imagine would go quite so fast. now, the u. s. government is concerned, russia could use the clashes and eastern ukraine as a pretext luncheon invasion is, is also something that ukrainian government is concerned about. definitely, and we've heard in recent days, not just from blood reputed bruce from other russian officials, add the word genocide being used, a key of being accused by russian or decision makers out of committee. jess out against its own citizens in easton ukraine, or of using weaponry of shelling at the separatist regions and of affecting m

civilians that something that has really come up and been really pushed by the official russian line in recent days. reports of mass graves of victims, the war from earlier in the conflict being found and now legal case being made. so the real feeling here is that this is a cause an attempt to find a cause for war to basic. you have an excuse to carry out a preventive strike, gates ukraine, and the line being that ukraine is trying to take these reaches back with force and that russia would have to come to though separate his age. prevent that happening. so definitely sense now hearing key of that, this is turning to a hotter face, that after the count diplomatic, doing and throwing of recent weeks. this is definitely now more dangerous situation . all right, nick, help us understand the conflicting reports about the russian troop build up at the border which ukraine moscow says it's pulling some of its true back. but nato says they are sending more troops to the region. well that's the thing at the beginning of the week, you had olive shells, chimneys, chancellor,

in moscow. and he basically seemed to have been able to change the tone we heard from the russians a, in the hours and days following that visit, that they were going to reduce some of those troop positionings along the ukraine. frontier take troops out of an ex crimea, but if the satellite imagery that western it as ages the going on is to be believed than they are basically just re distributing those troops, taking them out of alex crimea and bring them back to positions their home garrisons which are also very close ukraine's border. so nothing that really affects ukraine security and indeed new troops have been spotted in different locations. so essentially that this was potentially just some maneuvering, an attempt to show some good will towards all of shells, but no real rush and commitment to deescalate. and indeed it's difficulty why they would deescalate, with so far hasn't been. russia hasn't got any of the things it was demanding. we haven't seen vladimir putin either get a promise from nato to keep ukraine out, or to withdraw troops from those eastern european nater members. so sense that russia is going to keep on escalating until it sees some return on best pressure

being applied to ukraine in the west. all right, that was d w 's. nicole nearly bringing us the latest from ukraine. thanks for joining us. here's a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world. canadian police of the gun arresting protesters who have been blocking traffic in the capital ottawa for 3 weeks demonstrators angry about cope at 19 restrictions have paralyzed parts of the city. the crisis is prompted prime minister adjustment for dough to assume emergency powers. wildfires are still spreading in northern argentina after burning more than 6000 square kilometers over the past week. burton sea teams are fighting more than a dozen blazes. they're destroying farmland and ravaging a major national park. the region has suffered months of drought and high temperatures. rescuers in greece have saved 2 people were stranded inside a burning ferry for more than 15 hours. so far, hundreds have been rescued from the ship which caught fire while traveling between

greece and italy. some $290.00 passengers and crew were initially aboard. 11 people are still unaccounted for. at least 9 people have been killed as fear storms, batter, northern europe, record breaking winds have disrupted transport and knocked out power supplies across the u. k. braving the stormy sea. despite warnings to stay in doors. some people in brighton on england, south coast, when main drawn to the forces of nature. storm unit is the 2nd major storm this week and its sweeping across northern europe with record breaking gusts of nearly 200 kilometers an hour causing power outages for tens of thousands of people. were thirties in the u. k issued a rare red warning for parts a southern england including london was sections of the o. 2 every now roof were ripped off by this storm. said the message to london is

lost in his office has to be read whether when he sandals a still view, this is the worst ill way based in 3 decades sporting polar inadvertently put ourselves in the hallway adobe outdoors. numerous flights were cancelled and of the ones that did try to land in london heathrow. many ended up being diverted. train services were interrupted as well, leaving many passengers stranded, less quiet annoyance by i've been able to you. well, it worked out quite well because i was able to spend a little more time with my system before i had it back up. i'll try to make my way for i have to take a taxi that's what out to germany, france and the netherlands also issued severe weather warnings, storm eunice is likely to cause even more havoc than its predecessor did just days earlier in watching dw news. here's a reminder of the top story we're following for you. you as president joe biden

says he's convinced russia has decided to attack ukraine within days, including the capital key f bite and repeated the threat of massive, massive economic and diplomatic sanctions in the event of russian invasion. well, that's all for now, rob watts is off next with business. and remember there's plenty more world news analysis debate as well as sports and business news on our website. that's d w dot com. thanks for watching. sometimes a seed is all you need to allow the big ideas to grow. we're bringing environmental conservation to life with learning pass like global ideas. we will show you how climate change and environmental conservation is taking shape around the world and how we can all make a difference. knowledge grows through sharing.