the level that they're experiencing now is shocking. all scores. therefore, we cannot really predict how just the over did you. an overall situation is going to change by the all our, even though just behind me, the picture you see is relatively calm. it's relatively calm where you are, but we're hearing that around the country that you know, reports of, of explosions have been heard in multiple cities around the country. i'm also seeing that the ukranian border guard is reporting that russian tanks have crossed into ukraine on the given what we've heard from president putin, in terms of what his intentions are. how concerned is the ukranian government that it will be overthrown? where is the president now and where are the people who are in charge of running the country? as to the last statement we've heard for president zalinski was that he believes this is a going to the intention of letting me put in is to destroy this entire country

country. just a few minutes ago that the sports personnel for vladimir zalinski should a statement as well, that there's no panic within the government. don't panic when it comes to those from making decisions right now. now obviously, if somebody says there is no panic, that's when people start to wonder, really, is there really no panic, or is this just a, a sort of a prelude? what may happen, which is that maybe the government won't be able to act. marcia laws in place right now, so already that means that the military is going to, you are probably very soon set up checkpoints here. they are going to be in charge . it's not going to be basically the civilian civilian law, but martial law. that means that as things are really volatile, it changing by the minute and people who are in here are urged to stay at home and stay put. and just simply simply listen to what is coming as an advisor from the government. even though, after all, everybody here will and must make their own assessment. how to react.

funny, thanks for now, our correspondent in kiev funny french other if you're just joining us, this is the w news coming to you live from berlin. we are doing special coverage, of course, on the russian attack on ukraine. my name is terry martin. it'll, i'll just recap the latest developments in this developing story for you. the russian defense ministry says it has struck military infrastructure across ukraine after president, blood of your protein approved and operation in the dawn. best region explosions were seen in the cities of car keith and maria poll as well as on the outskirts of ukraine, says it's facing a full scale invasion and called for international support. president, believe me, as the lensky declared marshal law and said t of will be building an anti putin coalition. countries across the globe have

condemned russia's attack on ukraine. us present, joe biden said, quote, the world will hold russia accountable. the u. s. and e, you said moscow will face massive consequences for its attack on a sovereign country. but to cross over to our russian affairs analyst, constantine aga, he joins us from vilnius, the capital of lithuania, constantine, give us your initial reaction to this russian attack on ukraine. stupid actually, all i have to say terry, i did not expect been all out assault of the types of probably seen in the europe last on olds, black and white newsrooms. my mother and my grandmother spent the whole of one

second world war in moscow. the house was bombed into ruins, and that had to move from you know, apartment to apartment for quite a few years after that. and actually is very much an action replay of some kind of very old memories, which we thought are barrett or at least irrelevant for today. so it is very sad. the incredible said they also because this is not going to end. and the consequences for russia, because of the actions of the government, will be multiple and sometimes really unpredictable. i think what you'll see very soon is essentially you are fully between russia and at least the western world. i'm absolutely certain about that because this is now a major ideological organization to what did you make? konstantin of blood may proteins address in which he announced this military

operation, which appears to be an invasion. well, it appears to be an invasion to be as to be an attempt to session, essentially obliterates modern ukrainian states and probably replace it with russia friendly regime. i suppose that this is a very, very ominous term, golf demilitarization and the nazi cation mean, just to remind me, didn't instigation was a policy of western allies in germany, especially in the western western sector of germany. often 2nd world war in an attempt to basically eradicate the the remnants and the political structure and the, at the origin of the nazi regime. so this, to me, sounds very ominous and seeing that this is not just in attempt to secure some east in areas of the grain, the so called recognize republics in which we actually spoke just yesterday. but in

much wider go how it's going to be achieved. i wonder because even the courses that we see now in action and about which we had all this kind of reports coming in the last few weeks will not be enough to hold 45000000 country, which is actually to remind you largest european country by territory well, depart from russia, which is not wholly in europe. so it is the largest ukraine is the largest european country. but there's the how can you hold that with an occupation forcing? well, 200000 people. i don't know. i think he has a plan, which one, i'm afraid goes to go. so you mentioned your deep contact your roots in russia. how much support do you see in russia for this operation, where the russian people prepared for this? because as you pointed out, this will have massive consequences for russia,

there could be a new iron curtain. we heard from ursula fund ally and suggesting that europe will do everything it can to prevent russia from modernizing, which is one of the fears that that putting had expressed in the past. how much support is there for russians for putting in this move? my suspicion is that the russian society, which is day in day out from bothered by the massive propaganda about, you know, in not the state of your crime which is basically banking russians and something like that. i don't think that ross that you walk up to what actually happened. i watch rush and social media now, and i see people quite a few people saying, well, what i see say on metro trends is that people are just sitting there and playing groups, whatever, you know, chests or some video games without actually realizing that this is this is one vector and struck me, i think that the rational society now is,

will be just waking up very soon to what sexually happened because the, the social media will be in on that. but images of war, i do not think that's reflecting watson all off the wall. i think that most people usually subscribe to small victories and broker blood is more. this is not going to be want. so i suppose, sorry, my mobile phone going up. i think it will be a very, very rude awakening eventually, but not now do not expect crowds of russian all the rest where the molding feet and resignation of what it will be a process, a could be a rude awakening. and russia constantine exit are rational. pears analyst, thank you so much. well, let's cross over to washington. it's still the middle of the night there right now, just after 3 o'clock in the morning on the east coast. we have the w, as in a pole standing by and the capital in as president biden has said,

the world will hold russia accountable, who's expected to address the nation on thursday. what can we expect driving, expecting him to address as a nation in a couple of hours, as you just mentioned, it's still in the middle of the night. washington is sleeping. the white white house definitely is not sleeping. they're preparing their really closely co ordinating the further steps with the european union. we just heard a lot on the line and she also said very openly and very strongly that this is all very, very closely connected in a trans atlantic way. not only within the european union, we expect him to say pretty much the same as we heard from was a law for an airline earlier. and they will try to hit strategic sectors with the sanctions to follow. they will really trying to clog markets, which are key for the russian economy and, and this is the 1st, they're really going to target ali gars and porton and his family directly himself

. the united nations was meeting just as president protein was delivering his address, announcing the attack on ukraine. this happened dresser about 5 hours ago just over 5 hours ago. what can we expect from the united nations there in as in terms of our response? anything? well, it is in the united nations in away is a toothless kyger, especially because china and russian as well can really make use of their widow. so there is not a lot to expect from them at the very moment, despite a harsh condemnation and really strong words. we really have to hope we have to hope. i think the people in ukraine have to hope for sanctions from the united states and the european union, not so much from the outcome of the u. n. a. at this point. what is the united

states expecting now from, from europe because of this all fits into a larger geo, strategical geo strategic question about protecting key areas. the u. s. is, is pivoting to asia. so famously, which began under the obama administration already does. this is europe suddenly going to be back on the us map in terms of a, as a priority. as a result of this, that is a very, very important point you're making here. i had the chance to talk to former general portray us yesterday. and he, ex planed really bluntly that in a way of putin, broad nato, back a broad nato together. he said, i quote him here, put in, try to make russia great again. but what he really did, he is making nato to great again. and he is really reinforcing the trans atlantic relationship, which as we all know, really suffered a lot during the trump years. so there is a very,

very extensive and intensive exchange between europe and the united states. we saw chancellor olaf shouts visiting president joe biden. they are standing side by side, especially now as shoals announce that he will put a halt and nods for him to this is also a really applauded here within the united states. so the bonds, the transatlantic relationship, i shall say is as strong in the moment as it has not been for years in its thanks. for now. there was our washington bureau chief in us poll them you are watching d. w. news live from berlin. recapping our top story, of course, russia has launched a massive invasion on ukraine with attacks across the country. tia says at least 8 people have been killed so far, and 9 injured in air and ground assault by russian forces. russian. president putin says he had launched the military operation to quote,

secure the future of russia as a sovereign nation. western leaders have expressed outrage and vow to impose crippling sanctions. want to bring in our correspondent nicholas connelly here. he's part of our team on the ground in ukraine. he is currently in the north east of the country on near the ukraine, 2nd biggest city car. keep nick, 1st of all, bring us up to date on what you're hearing from your sources about how this invasion is unfolding. well, terry, this is really difficult just to watch on a couple of communications, especially close to the front lines, very valid for rental information coming through. but it does seem the most important thing about this. this is not just a 2nd. this is happening for across the bank. less than 2 seemingly trying because the border you mentioned that you guys are going to be said about a job,

which is where i'm coming from an ex premier coming from region closer to the very difficult to respond to given extraordinary, drawn on geography involved. we now have reports on cuz i'm depression in itself, not just at the border control. right now. i'm having trouble with the collection check and verify that we will see an image is of military installation ministrations field attacks across the country, even the west punish border. the rationale to move on to prevent interest coming in many how are you from western friends of ukraine? so far, people are not making you do simple trying to get fuel trying to get money out of cash machine and trying to market people keeping call, not leaving their voice is not losing their mind because the countries i've seen is the war with those we have seen people go off to fight regularly and because of

the biggest sale. now this is the country that we're hearing from you. cranny and leaders that the country will defend itself against any russian aggression. how much resistance can we expect, nick? or can we, should we be expecting the ukrainians to lay down their arms? if this is indeed a full scale and asian, given the overwhelming military superiority of the russian forces? i think there's no indication yet you going to make sure you are going to follow up with them. so i getting reports to me because we got them. they say that they have a pallet in the far east cobra, returning some talk to that have been taken by the 1st step in the morning just an oil change. we've seen me out and about we've seen

look at system is waiting alongside roads. so there is definitely something happening when i got off the train, i was actually going back there. i saw people from 7 to 5 brigade buying supplies to get ready getting the reference. and i think he's too dumb. certainly showing that you claims services and different kind of government organs getting to be trying to respond to we're getting a lot of video material, of course, coming out of ukraine. what our viewers were just seeing on their screens is flashing and the distance would appear to be aircraft fire. but we can't confirm that earlier you saw some smoke rising for up what i'm told was a military airport and we're seeing now a facade. we're farm and are trying to put out a fire again. we can't say exactly can't confirm exactly where these pictures are coming from. but, nick, i wanted to ask you about the rhetoric that, that we're hearing for coming out of moscow that let me putin is using to justify

this invasion. he is claiming it to be a defensive move, to protect russia's sovereignty. you've been around for quite a while in that region you've. you've worked in the mall a worked in moscow. you were in minsk during the demonstrations. there you've been in, you've spent time in crimea. what do you make of the rhetoric that president putin is using to justify this move? i think there was never, never been any serious threat to russia. security for defeated about russia to see this place in the world. what is the big they are going to and we have been talking about the time it would take for mcdonald to reach must go from your brain to be in your brain. but there's a pretty abstract discussion because nato was not on the call anytime soon. and that is, and i think this is more like

a situation in which the criminal calculation dot ukraine was drawing away. that projects were coming less dependent on russia, especially to recognize jeopardy me shot was gonna most go by reintegrating a good. we've got new politics, there was a real fear that was just needing rushes or able to support itself and dependent self. and this was potentially the last child. the result that controlled by there was been claims like moscow genocide and don't know being in any way felt out or justified behavior budget isn't doing that genocide. he's saying that's what level you brains me government about the genocide. you look at the details or they come up with civilian death in conflict in 2014. they haven't proven to be spent in that support by you learn through the victims or they found

some alleged grade, but they also proved that these people were targeting digital s nicole and existing identity. so the whole kind of scale is disapprobation right now. attempts to try and justify this. nothing that really sticks to nic. thanks for now. that was our correspondent nick connelly on the ground in northeastern ukraine. or for more now let's cross over to tyson barker. he's the head of global affairs that the german council on foreign relations tyson. good to see you again. ah, tell us, what do you think russian president vladimir putin, his goal is in all of this? well, it's, it's, it's quite hard to say what his exact fuller's, i mean, basically what he's done is opened up. what could, in essence be a, you're asian,

european, forever war. and clearly there has been a major escalation in the incursion in the invasion. it does not look to stop at the napkin, low hands of the rhetoric is around a, a, a potemkin genocide which is not taking place in ukrainian territory a using that is the justification for potential regime change. um, but you know, as a kind of strategic threat to the putin regime, you know, a ukraine on russia's border that speaks a very similar language or the same language in the case of many ukrainians. that is looking to realize a democratic clean capitalist society integrated into the euro atlantic is a direct threat to russia's regime. and so for that reason, there is an attempt to undermine that, that potential. and i think it to the extent that putin as trying to realize that and cement his legacy with that, that's what we're seeing. what, of course,

he's done in a, in his incursion is lost the hearts and minds of the cranium. people which is very clear that has been the case since 2014, but ukrainian identity ukrainian will to become part of the euro. atlantic community has never been higher. i and so in that effect, even if he winced the battle, it seems like he's lost the war looking, you know, looking at this from a political point of view and economic point of view, tyson, the european union and the united states, the west in general has promised massive sanctions. we can assume that the full, the full weight of those sanctions will now come to bear upon russia in response to its invasion of ukraine. what impact you think this is going to have on russia and what are the consequences for these, for what we assume to be massive sanctions, what, what impact is that going? what the consequences of those for the european union and the u. s. yeah,

well i mean, we saw, you know, the 1st incursions yesterday in the 1st a trench of sanctions. we've seen a massive escalation of, of military activity today this morning. and we will see a proportionate massive escalation of, of retaliatory sanctions and cost actions which will affect the financial sector, the energy sector, the technology sector, and the individuals that have propped up the putin system. and those include, you know, the, a, the kind of, you know, grey cardinals that surround him that have enriched themselves and tried to move money out of the country in the past years. and, and i think this is a big change. their children are children, wives, family members, those who have served as kind of mules to get money out of the country and to live . you know, the kind of western lives that they deny to the russian people. what the potential effect it could have on the u. s. in the west. i mean the, the impacts could be quite large. obviously, cutting off gas supplies or to the european union in the winter is going to cause

increased in costs, which has already been the case. so the u. s. in europe are already thinking about stabilizing mechanisms, means of building resilience in terms of l. n. g exports, in terms of getting gas on line from the united arab emirates, from katara, from the united states itself. and of course, russia is also a major source of raw materials including where earth's, or lithium a lot of materials used in, in new technology, including green technology or electric vehicle batteries, for example, chips, et cetera. so they have a lot of, you know, russia is in many ways the raw materials, chests of the world and they have that at their disposal to, to leverage now, it should be said that russia also wants to create a sustainable economy based on technology and said himself,

those who control artificial intelligence are going to control the world in the future. and the u. s. in europe's ability to cut off a semi conductor supplies to cut off a intellectual property. our software is going to have a major impact on that aspiration. you talking about information technology. i know i know that the other half you where at the german council on foreign relations are the cyber dimension to this conflict, tyson, could you reflect on that for a moment? what can, what should we anticipate? what should ukrainians anticipate in terms of the rollout of all of the cyber weapons that russia has developed and what sort of escalation can we look at on that front? yeah, i'm so thus far in the course of the low intensity conflict over the past 7 plus years, the cyber dimension has also been somewhat low intensity or what we've seen so far have been pretty standard earth cyber incidence. cyber

operations are the defacing of government websites. a distributed denial of service attacks meant to knock off what would be considered very secure websites of the ministry of defense and of the financial sector. but these are all indications of the capabilities that lay in the russian arsenal. and one thing that was discovered by microsoft is the ability to wipe out data from very, very sensitive websites. and i think that, you know, a government data banking data that would have a massive impact on the ukrainian economy as it did in 2017, when the not petty attack took place and not a point or almost a point of g d p off the ukrainian economy, so while i think that the cyber dimension is going to be much more civilian targeted and could potentially hit critical infrastructure, which is obviously key. it is not going to be the main line of attack that is going

to remain the kinetic attack. and i think that's what we should focus on mainly right now. tyson, thank you so much. shar tyson barker of, of the are strong counsel, important relations. thank you. and here's more reactions to russia's attack on ukraine. here's what us present, joe biden tweeted a short time ago. he said russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring. and the united states and its allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way the world will hold russia accountable. he says, european union's commission, president ursula on the line said we strongly condemn russia's unjustified attack on ukraine in these dark hours. our thoughts are with ukraine and the innocent women and children as they faced this unprovoked attack and fear for their lives. we will hold the kremlin accountable. and we got this from the british prime minister worse johnson. he says, i'm appalled by the horrific events in ukraine and i have spoken to president

lansky to discuss next steps. president putin has chosen the path of bloodshed and destruction by launching this unprovoked attack on ukraine. the u. k. and our allies will respond decisively. you are watching dw nurse, i'm terry martin with me in the studio is our political correspondent, thomas barrow. he's been following these events from the beginning. of course sir thomas bring us up to date, others so much happening at one time. it's very difficult to get an idea of exactly what is happening. where are we? exactly. so it is certainly a developing situation with very unclear elements as well. we're still trying, for example, to verify some of the images that are coming in from the eastern part of ukraine. we're also following, obviously closely the reactions that are coming from the west from european union lead us from leaders also in other parts of the world. and we're trying to and

understand what reaction might come in concrete steps. so in this developing situation, it's always important to stress what we know so far and what is happening and what also might develop. we heard, for example, from la phone de lion, the president of the european commission that europe will implement very strict sanctions on russia. hashes sanctions as she described as well as joseph arrayed foreign policy chief within the european union. what exactly those sanctions might be that that's something that european leaders will be discussing at the same time we're hearing from different capital, different european capitals reaction. we're also expecting in the next few hours statement by german chancellor or left shows. and we're also obviously trying to understand how exactly this coordination will be, what exactly will be implemented from a specifically german perspective. it will also be interesting to see where the germany follows suit and where the germany also understand the requests that have

been placed on by ukraine. we heard from the crating ambassador to germany saying that he wanted a much stronger reaction from berlin. so not only signs of le doroty, but specifically sending weapons specifically strong the sanctions on russia and much more financial aid. so when we hear from all f shows in the next couple of hours, it will be interesting to see, to what extent he goes on to explain this issues. whether in some way, germany's position might have change when it comes to defensive weapons. where the, for example, germany will send more financial aid to ukraine and how it will also coordinate with its european allies in this very difficult, very, very difficult situation. tell us there's been a discussion in germany for years about its contribution to nato, not just in financial terms, the 2 percent deal, but in terms of developing capabilities to support nato to,

to strengthen its capacity to deal with threats were now in a different situation than we were just yesterday we heard from the european commission, president ursula funder lie and saying that the european security architecture is being implicated in all of this. that there are going to be consequences for that. do you think this will change germany's position in terms of how of what sort of military contribution it makes to nato german lead us both in public but also in the background meetings had been for a very long time, a bit upset that the debate about germany's contribution to nato was restricted, basically, to the money that is given as part of the g d p. so that 2 percent contribution that all states, all nato partner, should be giving towards a collective defense. germany does have stress and that's something that we've also heard in the new government from all f shows that germany is.