ah, ah ah, this is d w. news live from berlin, europe on the brink of a major war, fighting intensifies and aisd ukraine after russia's blood may have been sending more troops. fierce grow that moscow could try to save new territory from kill us. president obama was a russian invasion of ukraine has already begun as he announces sanctions targeting russian backs and oligarchy. and in a major turn around pearl, and holds the controversial nodes stream to pipeline project between russia and

germany. ah, i'm rebecca writ as welcome to the program. we began with the latest on the escalating crisis over ukraine. russia continues its massive military build up on ukraine's borders despite sanctions announced by the us and its allies. new satellite images show rusher is amassing more troops and equipment just across the border from ukraine's largest cities. these images from an american firm showed the situation embarrass just north of the capital, kia where russian forces are also stationed. already moscow has sent new forces into the war, turned on bass rage, and after recognizing 2 self proclaimed republics, it had long backs on the front line. their fighting has intensified another shell, false ne, by here in the frontline town of gesture and ukrainian control. who hans,

the war is already a reality. an attack targets a power station. ukraine says pro russian forces were responsible. there is also been artillery shelling on residential areas, and people ask it. but didn't know that if we have no coverage, no light, but we are in the basement with flashlight stick with him. we went and then it stopped for a while. but when you go out the black start again, it's scary, of course, although we have already experienced this before. he was far away from the frontline, the upper house of the russian parliament voted to approve bloody me. putin's recognition of the donates, enhanced people's republics as independent states, something the un course of breach of international law. but the russian president didn't stop there. he later announced the borders of the 2 republics

included ukrainian health territories. not just rebel held areas, nor would you please note, we recognize that donates enhanced people's republics. which means we have recognized all the founding documents, including the constitution. and the constitution defines the boarders off the don units and hands regions at the time when they were part of ukraine already. michel gun, you believe the federal crane at this conference is, according to nato. this could be the beginning of a major war. many fear a full scale attack on ukraine is still part of russia plans. okay. ukraine is not a night member. that the alliance had been moving troops, planes, and ships to the east and flank such as the baltic states to prevent any escalation bowl spilling over. earlier we spoke to date of any correspondent nick connelly in kiev and asked him how ukrainians are dealing with his escalation, the past 2 weeks. there was a very strange disconnect where you had the world's media talking about this

extraordinary level of attention diplomatic visits. almost every day, and yet it felt like the people here on the ground didn't really want to engage with these headlines. didn't want to engage with the possibility of those russian tanks. long ukraine's board is actually being used actually crossing ukraine's borders. i think few things really changed that in the last few days. that's the optic in fighting in don't bass. we really seeing shelling and soldiers being killed or wounded at a rate that we hadn't seen since the high point of the war in 20142015. i think it's also news, a foreign diplomats leaving key of a of ukraine's which is people. so getting out to think definitely will change the mood of people now seriously. actually thinking that this may affect them in their daily lives and isn't just something that's restricted to the dumbass. a few under clumps, away from where i am here and give dw correspondent nick, commonly speaking to us a little earlier us president joe biden says, russia's invasion of ukraine has already begun and listed what he called a 1st tranche of sanctions. again, last code, the american action follows

a string of punitive measures set out by european leaders by and said the sanctions will target russian banks and all agog moscow's access to western financing. so today i'm announcing the 1st rounds of sanctions to impose costs on russia. in response to their actions yesterday, these have been closely coordinated with our allies and partners, and will continue to escalate sanctions of russia escalates. were implementing full blocking sanctions on 2 large russian financial institutions, v b and our military back recommending comprehensive sanctions on russia's sovereign debt. that means we've cut off russian government from western financing. it can no longer raise money from the west and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or european markets either starting tomorrow and continued in the days ahead. will also impose sanctions on russia's, leech and their family members. they share in the club gaze of the criminal policy

and to sharon, the pain as well because of russia's actions we work with germany to ensure nor stream to well not as i promised will not move forward. and database washington bureau chief in as paul has some analysis for us on the us. presidents page is how full school is this response from the us. it was for forceful and as republicans and democrats have urged the presidents of the cause of the last days to import, impose har sanctions. he got quite a positive reaction from both sides of the political spectrum, which is fairly rare these days. so president joe biden described events for the 1st time as the beginning of a russian russian invasion. this is the 1st time he is using this word than he laid out what he called a 1st strange. and you know what is really remarkable in that regard,

that they also going to kind of sanction oligarchy and maybe putting himself, how much of an impact will the sanctions really have? i mean, the threat was already clear, but that didn't seem to determine when the president vladimir putin is prepared to put a couple of 100 billions, kind of has it ready to, to kind of overcome these. immediate empowers of the sanctions. but you know, in the long run, for things like putting a nose from to an hold will hurt him. and definitely also what i just said, that the oligarchy also kind of put in sanctions. we shall see if this makes this life a little more difficult. and it biden really stress the point that they were just a 1st tranche, and how likely is it? and when might we say the u. s. government entities further measures against russia?

well, it really depends on the behavior of flooding you put in. if he really invade sir ukraine as a whole, there will definitely a harsher sanction. the big question is available. be taken out of the swift so that there will be a really much harder to do international business. and then we also hear that maybe they will be cut of the micro chip or market worldwide. so there there's a lot more, a president joe biden and also other european leaders have kind of in pet or to put on the table. if vladimir putin really is willing to invade the whole of ukraine in a wait and see some very nerve wracking days and weeks ahead in as pol in washington, thanks very much for your time. on the 27 european union member states have unanimously agreed on an initial set of sanctions targeting russia. the use of foreign affairs chief justice burrell says the measures will affect members of

parliament and other individuals involved in deploying troops, and that the package will hurt russia, degree violations rush years committing will not go financial it. they're not going . we're national it. we are strongly united in this run and we will grace the level of sanction substantially, according with russian behavior. because many question march a pending on this critical moment. and by far the strongest european retaliation at this stage is germany's decision to hold the key nod stream to gas pipeline. the pipeline should bring rush and gas directly to europe through germany, but still need the approval from german regulators. chancellor, all of sholtes now says the project is suspended indefinitely. german chancellor shots on his way to announcing

a key foreign policy decision to hold the highly controversial note string to pipeline in response to russia's recognition of 2 separatist regions in ukraine. larger sort of the situation, today's fundamentally different esser and therefore in view of the latest developments, we have to reassess the situation. also, with regard to north trim tooth by not string to aimed to transport russian gas directly to germany under the baltic sea. its construction was finished last year and was pending regulatory approval for a long time. both russian and german leaders, including shoals in the past, had defended the project. but it had plenty of very vocal enemies, ukraine as a start, because it undercuts its own pipelines. but also the u. s. and various e u countries were concerned, it would give russia too much power has and leave europe vulnerable. those

countries welcomed tuesdays decision with ukraine's foreign minister, calling it morally politically and practically correct. big words of support towards the german chancellor who had previously been criticized for being too vague on the north stream to pipeline. let's go straight to our political correspondent, thomas sparrow. here in berlin. thomas, we just heard it there. sholtes had been criticized for being weak on this issue. now he shocked many by putting the pipeline on eyes. how significant is this move find germany? absolutely. allah shawls have been criticized for being too vague on the issue of north stream too. but in this particular case, he clearly stated something that actually germany's allies had hoped for, for a very long time halting north stream to this is a particularly important decision on various friends on the one hand, because it sends

a clear message of condemnation towards russia. germany clearly rejects alongside its political allies, russia's latest moves in ukraine. on the other hand, it sends a message of support to germany's allies, germany's political allies, the united states, but also allies within europe. that for a very long time had been very critical of north stream too, because on the one hand, they believe that that left europe too vulnerable. and on the other hand, they believed that it gave russia too much power. so absolutely a very significant move by allah charles, specifically, from a political point of view when it comes to showing condemnation to was russia and support to its political allies and welcomed fathers, allies. as you say that who is it going to hurt more russia or germany? well, it's important to stress rebecca that this pipeline is still not functioning. so it's still not delivering gas from russia to germany was waiting for regulatory

approval. so i don't think that will be immediate pain from an economic perspective for either country. there is obviously a very big economic risk for both of them for both russia and germany. but it's important to understand this decision in political terms because of the political messages that it sends, because of the political responsibility that germany takes with this decision in a very delicate, in a very sensitive moment for europe altogether. so there are risks involved, obviously, but it's a decision that has to be analyzed. first and foremost from a political point of view that germany is taking alongside its political allies. does this significant decision by chancellor shall signify? do you think tom, at that germany has lost hope of a diplomatic solution to the crisis? germany hasn't lost hope of a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but it is safe to say that diplomacy has been affected. that what germany and by the way other countries had hoped for with diplomatic talks with sitting at the

table with russia actually did not happen. and in particular for the german case that happens with the not with the so called norman d for my to format that has been there for many years now. that brings together france and germany, russia and ukraine. this is how this has been badly affected now with russia's latest move, but even though it has been badly hurt by russia as late as move, chancellor shots clearly stressed that he hoped to keep that normandy format, basically, what germany other other allies have also been reinforcing is that even though the focus now is on the sanctions that have been placed, they still hope to have channels of communication open with russia to try and resolve the situation altogether. thomas, thank you very much for that analysis. state of it is thomas farrah. you're watching a d w news. his a recap of this major story we're following for you. new satellite images show. russia is continuing its massive military build up on ukraine's orders,

despite sanctions announced by the us and its allies that says, fighting intensifies in the water. don bass region after the kremlin recognized to self reclaimed republics. it had long backed that's your news update this out. there's plenty more news and information on our website. that's the w dot com. i'm rebecca griffith. thanks for watching. imagine how many portions of love us heard out in the world. climate change very often story. this is my plan, the way from just one week how much we can really do we still have time to work. i'm going with blue.