so i want to ask you about the financial and humanitarian assistance. that's something that the ukrainian foreign minister dmitri could labor made very clear in a tweet today that ukraine absolutely need that this moment beyond military assistance. and was a lot underlying asked about preparing for helping ukrainians. fleeing said that that we are fully prepared for refugee refugees and they are welcome. so tell us more about how the european union is preparing the humanitarian front for internally displaced people and to welcome refugees. this clearly, this attack on ukraine does not come as a surprise. i mean, we didn't know that the invasion would start today. but of course, that you and also your countries have prepared for a possible invasions, an invasion and also half report for people having to flee ukraine. and the country, especially those country, is at the eastern flank of the european union, for example, poland and the baltic states. so there are preparations underway,

but it really depends on how many people will be coming. i mean, it was enough on the line said those people in need are welcome. but looking at europe asylum and migration strategy in the past, it was always a bit difficult to find your countries that would take in a refuge she is that would provide shelter for refugees. so it's not only those countries at the ears external borders who would have to do that. and that's certainly something that will also be discussed at the leadership summit tonight. all right, thank you. marina. well, you'll be following that leader summit for us, of course, of e. e was response there in brussels. thank you. if you're just joining us, sir, our top story, this breaking story, russia, launching a full scale invasion of ukraine with attacks and targets across the country. camp is saying the dozens of people have been killed. many have been injured and large scale air and ground assault by russian forces. and a russian president,

putin says he has launched the military operation to quote, secure the future of russia as a sovereign nation. western leaders as we just heard there vowed to impose crippling sanction. and let's go to kia. we can speak to on the phone. alexi mel lake is the co director of the foreign relations and international security programs of the resident call center in kiev. he's an expert on defense and national security and foreign policy. first of all, i was, i just want to get your reaction on this invasion that we've seen start. yeah, i wouldn't say anything you, you can imagine what kind of prediction if you wake up. because for you here in pretty strange phones into you, and then you look at the internet and you see something that you simply can't believe that's a big speaker says, well, we both expected. but again, it always take you by surprise. what is your,

what is your analysis or your assessment of the state of the military incursion at this moment? are you surprised to see the level of the incursion and how long do you think ukrainian forces can actually withstand the russian military? first of all, we really predicted just scenario and i can't see currently make any assessment about to how long our forces agreeing to defend their aggression. because ukraine has been attacked, that's been said from the air using missiles and the whole aerial view came from the russian border. and it's, let me tell you 2000 kilometers. ukraine is not as strong really thoroughly. as far as i know, you can enforce this a fighting and also the recent mobility nation organized by the government l. so

lose ation, ukrainians. getting auto and we also put in for really cool, divorced. yeah, i want to ask you also about the measures that the ukranian government is taking what we've seen from president lensky so far, issuing martial law. i mean, how will that help ukraine, these coming hours and days? well, if we can face something to vote more remote today in the morning, more kind of coming code of to you. of course, the accused, the guest ation snow cash in the cash machines and the but they panic and people got a coal as they can be in this situation. and the marshal is something that should be introduced to few days before. but anyway, but the late than never, what kind of health did ukraine need right now on defense and security,

but also in assistance also financially and humanitarian. the system we do understand this is a war and 2 main mission is to stop the russians. but 3, also, 1st of all, let me thank you who all the support being provided and promised. but now i think that the action needed more than just functions and talks. because you really need to send a message to mister putin to coast some pain for him. and also, i disagree with your assessment. so the russian people please taking mine. this is the same people who celebrated together was putting because me and the station 2 days ago, days for how for them 50 percent of fresh and supported this nearly peroration. so

please don't be make another mistake saying that the russians people are not responsible for their leader is doing. that's an interesting point, mister melick. i want to ask you about, you just said there that we have to send a strong message to mister putin. if you look at president putin's response, the sanctions in the past, he said in 2020 the previous sanctions essentially made russia just have to think smarter about how to conduct the economy. what is the right message that the president putin at the moment? i think that we are you tried to apply this? the approach is like determine defense and communication and no i think this is a lot of them wark so no, i think that's something need to be done to isolate russia. i mean, really isolate russia from the civilized and also you have to prepare the

inflection is really pretty racial or ukraine vacation. quite critical. but we need to think i'm thinking about the other than the thought of me a call on me really, really? first of all, please just don't pay him for his go there to get me the bank money. ok. disarming russia in any means possible? the message there from lexie melnick, the co director of the foreign relations and international security programs of the russian cost center in chia, thank you very much for joining us. thank you for having german foreign minister and alina barbara gave a statement earlier in which she pledged to unleash a full package of sanctions on russia. this is what she said by this war is the

name that destroying the one thing for sure. the hopes of people, ukraine, that i, and decades of lack of freedom that they would have a right to democracy and a better future without oppression with the president whom b nima. you will never destroy this dream. you know what, you know, it is growing in ukraine and it is growing in your own country. it is my firm conviction that in russia as well, many people will be deeply embarrassed about this will be outraged, and that in the name of russia, with more uneven, there has been stunned, grew polish murder on their brothers and sisters in ukraine, even as we are all shocked this morning, but we are not helpless before, but we have prepared for these events and men will work together with our partners and allies that my case started effort and you know option will coordinate with every measure we take with the ukraine with within the u,

within nato and within the g 7 for and one and the full package of sanctions will be ammunition on russia. hyde. full package of thanks, since we heard there from the german foreign minister. let's bring in our chief political editor, michelle, couldn't or has been following the reaction here in berlin for assigned me. so you know, what would that full package include? we've heard was left underline, speaking also about the coordinated sanctions with the european union. so what exactly are they're referring to? yes, all, we'll learn the full package this afternoon, but already announcement of sanctions on individuals. all the guys access to financial markets. we're due to learn whether that will include the swift payment system. i would almost expect. so at this moment in time, so a very strong accent, non military action, a strong response from a european union and nato

a trans atlantic alliance that is demonstrating that it stands united at this very moment in time. but as we heard from under lena bear box, this front line that we are observing actually runs through our societies right now . because this is an attack and apparent attack on democracy itself on the ability of democratic states to act. and that's also why we heard there from european leaders, if it was a funder line, that putin will have to explain to his own people in this war. or the big question is, does he even, or can he just go through with it? and it is the moment where democracy has to prove that it can deliver protection for its own people and stability here in germany, europe, and beyond. indeed, major mikayla. and that's bringing up questions again here in this debate here in germany about whether to send ukraine weapons, especially as this invasion has started, and we seen

a few voices changing their tune. today. we spoke to thomas debra han of the c s. u a little bit earlier who said yes, it is now time to talk about sending weapons to ukraine. is that debate actually going to move the needle? we see the german government shift its policy entirely on the that debate is back. it is faring out, but i don't think it will sift the naval simply because also the big question is whether germany is bonus. very armed forces actually have that terribly much to offer that we could, it could, they could simply handover. there's deep frustration also in the bonus for leadership. one, the, the head of the armed forces actually taking to linked in this morning and basically stating that if the german armed forces don't really have very much. in fact, the german outlook on russia is looking very pale this morning and the party, the social democrats party of german chance at all. our shots is holding an emergency virtual meeting this afternoon to debate the next steps. afterwards,

the social democrat party that had been if anything, holding their chancellor back from taking a stronger stance on russia, particularly on the north stream, a 2 pipeline which she saw as an entry ticket to exhaust or avenues all diplomatic avenues. when he went to moscow last week, and then we saw left, so it's react. now, seeing that, that pipeline will be stopped and we're hearing from you installed back the nato secretary general, that this was a long planned attack. so clearly, germany, europe, the west has been up staged by vladimir putin who was paying this for a very long time while protesting a bit too much. even in recent days. interesting that you say upstate michelle, because i want to ask you about a tweet that we actually brought into the program a little bit earlier from the former defense minister. and i got come con bower. she was at the fence minister. many of our viewers will member under a chance, i'm going to miracle in this last term. and she said that this has been

a historic mistake essentially from the west, and that nothing has been done to deter president put in a good deal of hindsight. there, of course, but what did you make of that? is there a sense in berlin today that real mistakes were made? absolutely. i mean, it's always interesting to hear from someone like an a guy come come by, who held a lot of responsible. he who at some stage was seen as the heir apparent to angular michael is a conservative leader and chancellor and then failed. so politically, she has nothing to lose. and it is her who speaks of a historic failure. now that tweet is really going viral right now. that is a very steep learning curve is shock sense of learning over roster of vladimir putin and that when he was seen as someone who needs to be brought on board as a partner for security for a very long time. well, this is just evaporated literally overnight here and a, we are seeing the g 7 nato, everybody scrambling to really find

a way to approach this situation because geographically, certainly russia is not going to go away. that's where we stand right now. but a shock moment, particularly for the social democrats who are, who were seen in the past as a whole slant 1st year under standards of russia. their chief whip, who was one such person and or from woodson ish this morning, quite clearly took a u turn. he said, clearly vladimir putin is a war criminal. that's where we stand right now. but where you crane is standing right now. it's a lot of rhetoric. it's economic support, but no military protection that needs right now. michelle are following the voices for a so here in berlin, we'll speak to a little bit later. thank you for that analysis. let's bring you up to date on where we stand. russia has launched a full scale invasion of ukraine. the russian military is carrying out a ground and air assault on targets across the country,

including and big cities in the capital. key of ukraine says its army is fighting back. civilians are trying to flee in some places. reports of casualties are coming in. western nations are expressing outrage at the offensive and se moscow will pay a heavy price. with dawn came the bombs rusher attacked sites across ukraine. the russian troops that had been amassing on the border for weeks started rolling in, recorded on surveillance cameras by ukraine's border police brushes . leda, let me putin announced the military operation in abroad. call some russian tv. he disparaged ukraine's democratically elected government and ukrainian soldiers to surrender. ukraine's president followed amir savanski introduced martial

law. and he made an emotional plea to russians. you have a question. i'm addressing you, the russian people as a ukrainian citizen, bullied, we are separated by border stretching more than 2000 kilometers. and right now there are 200000 of your soldiers. there are a couple of your leadership has authorized them to move into the territory of another country. and this could mark the start of the major war on the european continent. now you can continue black smoke from a ukrainian military airport and cha give in the east of the country. russia confirms that they bond. the site for housing block was hit, and distraught residence were left, grieving the 1st casualties in

a new war. they did not want as the world condemned russia's attack on its neighbour. the you commission president said all of europe is under threat with rushes. targets is not only done bus. the target is not only ukraine, the target is the stability and europe. and the whole of the international peace order, and we will hold president putin accountable for that. germany's chancellor, olaf shalt promised more sanctions will be coordinating closely with our international partners in nato and in the european union to day in order to place further severe sanctions against russia now. and it is good that we have prepared for this eventuality. carefully,

the aim of our sanctions is to make it clear to russian leadership that they will pay a better price for this aggression. but sanctions can't come soon enough for many ukrainians. in the capital cave cars jammed the roads as the residence tried to flee the city. well, that is a look at where things stand at the moment in russia, you've invasion of ukraine, and as we said and saw there, there are multiple reports coming in from across the country of russia's air and ground assault. and we have a william, blue croft with us to give us a better picture of what that invasion looks like at the moment. that's right. to me, we've been seeing the pictures from months of russian troops building up all around ukraine. and now the unthinkable as happened, those troops are moving in to ukraine. let's have a look on the map of all the sides, bat russian troops. as many of the 190000 of them are coming in on the north,

the east, and specifically the south. we have some major cities here in ukraine. we've heard reports and remedies or reports. it's very difficult to confirm a lot of this information in this kind of stressful chaotic violence situation. we've heard reports of explosions in cartesian, a city to the east. we've been hearing things about amphibious landings in port cities like murray uphold very important strategic areas for ukraine. port cities also like odessa. and we've also been hearing reports of explosions in key of the capital of ukraine. now we have to remember if we focus over to the east, that is the separate is the russian supported separatist part of ukraine that is not recognized by the rest of, of the world actually. and that's where russian troops 1st entered, according to putin's own announcements, on monday. and they've been pushing in from the east, along with troops,

as said through the south and with air attacks, as we've been hearing in key of and concave. and what we're seeing now, we seen pictures masses of cars, of traffic, of people trying to get out of the capital key of possibly moving to view, which is a city all the way far in the west. the border with poland. they were member in the last several weeks. western diplomats have been relocating there thinking it's a safer a city being further away from potential fronts. now what you can't see in this map is as a river that comes right down the middle of ukraine to disappear river. and one fear is that russian troops coming in from the south attacking by air and coming in from the north through bell ruse, could actually cut ukraine off east and west. and that is what ukrainian forces are facing in a very, very difficult situation. again, assuming, as we know, very uncertain what's going on right now, we just have to take reports as they come and see where things go between the

forces right now. thanks, william. thanks for updating that picture for us. as you said, we are trying to verify a lot of those images and reports that we're hearing coming in a from across ukraine with our correspondence as well. but 1st, let's take a look again at some of those early reactions to russia's attack on ukraine that we're coming in this morning. the ukranian foreign minister demitra caliber went on twitter to say putin has just launched a full scale invasion of ukraine. peaceful ukrainian cities are under strikes. this is a war of aggression. ukraine will defend itself and will win the world the can and must stop hooton's the time as to act as now. and a here is what the united nations secretary general and tanya tater said he directly appealed to the russian president saying, president putin in the name of humanity, bring your troops back to russia. this conflict must stop now. and the german chancellor, olaf sholtes earlier said in a statement the russian attack on ukraine is a blatant violation of international law. it cannot be justified by any thing.

germany condemns in the strongest possible terms, this unscrupulous act by president putin. our solidarity goes out to ukraine. and to its people and among those reactions, china has asked for all parties to exercise restraint after russia's invasion of ukraine. a foreign ministry spokeswoman refused to call it an invasion asking instead for dialogue. we'll miss you on these. we hope the region can maintain peace and we call on all parties to exercise restraint and prevent the situation from getting out of control. at the same time, i would like to reiterate china's position, that true security should be comprehensive and sustainable, and legitimate concerns by all parties should be respected and address. we hope that all relevant parties do not shut the door to peace, but instead engage in dialogue. consultation and negotiation to alleviate the situation and prevent it from escalating you. she seemed wishing richard back with

us. richard, what do you make of that statement from china? asking all parties to restrain themselves, but not issuing from rebuke of russia. that's right. and not wanting to use the term invasion. so at this stage, and i think it's really, really interesting to look at where china is positioning itself on this crisis. because there's been a lot of talk recently in recent years, but also especially in the last few months of a kind of growing closeness between russia and china. they us increasingly seeing i to why against the united states in the broader kind of democratic west and that we're beginning to see the sort of sorting of the world into a kind of a, a battle of the systems between the autocrats and the democrats. and this was made very visible just at the beginning of the olympic games the winter olympics that just took place in beijing. vladimir putin went to beijing. he met, she's paying the 2 countries, put out a huge long statement about their kind of common purpose in

a whole range of areas and saying that they're working together. there's no limits to the ways in which they can work together. so this really raised fears that have been intensifying anyway. western circles that the, the kind of increasing show down that's taking place with russia could just push russia into china's hands. and the china is the really big kind of long term threat to the western model. given that it's economically so much more powerful and much larger than russian. so that's kind of the backdrop tool of this. but now this crisis obviously being an intensifying and what is the chinese position? well, at the weekend when the, the pharmacy took place to pass in the munich security conference is annual conference and security that takes place in germany, that this was totally dominated by this crisis. and the beginning of his speech, he kind of opened with a tie rage against the united states and saying that the united states is trying to divide the world into a kind of a new old war scenario. pushing back against that very much,

and also voicing strong support for russia's demands from the west that we've been hearing back in recent weeks. is the diplomacy is continued russia demanding from the west to get security guarantees. claiming that the expansion of nato in europe has been a major threat to it. and saying that it demands that nato no longer expect that nato expansion should be over. and the chinese support that, so that's why he, the foreign minister of china said we support all of that. but then when he was asked in the q and a afterwards, well, you are very adamant about you. and by sticking to you and principles, you nice nation principles, the un charter for instance, believe and chelsea talks about territorial living, integrity of countries. you know, is it this belief in the importance of territorial integrity of a country conscious nibble off part of the country? does that apply to ukraine as well?

and a foreign minister of china said yes, that does apply to ukraine. so you have these kind of a little bit of a duality positions here on the one side. they're very much of increasingly aligning with russia. yes. but on the other side, they're saying, well, we want to stick to principles about territorial integrity. now, what i think is the question going forward is, if this invasion continues to be as flagrant as it appears to be, will the chinese position soften in its support for russia? will it turn things down? when of course, we were hearing a lot of calls for dialogue and diplomacy that will let me put in is just invaded, evidently not really a moment for dialogue with closing. so we're really, i think we need to watch what the chinese position is going forward because it's could start to get increasingly awkward. and if they do change their position anyway, even slightly, even in terms of that will be heard loud and clear in the criminal one more question of the chinese position. you think that this is

a moment of significance also for the west and for the european union to send a strong response also to other adversaries. not just vladimir putin in russia, in this instance as a deterrent. well, i mean, i think, i'm sorry, i don't follow the question well that the european union here is wanting to send a strong message to be clear that this is a united, wrong response west against all adversaries who might threaten the territorial integrity of well, what i think a couple of things to say on that. on the one hand, obviously, deterrents, by the way it has failed. vladimir putin has not been deterred by the threats of sanctions. has not been deterred by for some western countries providing weapons ukraine. he's obviously taken a calculated risk or i accept all of that. i'm going in and doing this anyway. i and now it's up to the west to decide will be okay. we haven't deterred him how much we want to punish him now. and you know that the purpose of these sanctions,

in terms of russia then become more of a punishment with a view to china. i mean, if you're, you're sort of getting it questions around tight china and taiwan for it's. well, there's been obviously a lot of speculation last couple of years about where the china is at some point, going to make good on its claim that it has the right to take tie would control of taiwan by force, which she, jim ping, the president china said repeatedly, but china would argue, will there's a totally different context there. right. and that is that tie one is not recognized as an independent state. it is seen like most countries around the world recognize the people's republic of china as china and say that there is one china. so tie one is only a de facto independent country so that you can't necessarily carry over all of the lessons about the outrage over this. now, a to that, because it, it, you know, if it, because taiwan simply doesn't have the same status that ukraine does as an independent . i certainly don't want to lead us away from the issue at hand, which is,

of course, russia's invasion of ukraine here. so maybe we can come back to the press conference that we sold a bit earlier with that was left on the line and shawn, michelle and nato secretary general as well. again, sort of when they talked about a series of punishing sanctions, we don't know exactly what the package will be. we are expecting to find that out later this afternoon. what do you think that we might see in terms of a coordinated response? yeah, well 1st of all, they will want to really demonstrate this unity. and this is something that all 3 of the leaders that really stressed you, the message was left on to line. unity is our strengths. it's incredibly important to them not to show any kind of gaps in, in, in, in that unity going forward. so what from the line was talking about was primaries financial sections. so sanctions, she put it that would harshly limit russia's access to international markets and saying that the sanctions would hurt its economic growth that they would drive

inflation that they would, it would hurt its industrial. but. and then the other thing that she pointed to was limiting access to certain important technology. so saying high tech components and cutting edge software is what she specifically referred to. so essentially trying to stop russia get, get a hold of technologies that are important to the future development of its economy . so some of those things like financial sanctions, could have an immediate impact. those cutting off access to certain technologies, more of a longer term impact. but those are the things that they're talking about now, but we don't have the specific. so for instance, you know, whether they are going to go ahead with one of the sort of nuclear option sanctions that's been talking about talked about is cutting off access to the swift payment system, which is this is national payment system that the majority of international financial transaction payments go through cutting russia.