would hotties economic growth that they would drive inflation that they weren't, it would hurt his industrial bit. and then the other thing that she pointed to was limiting access to certain important technology. so saying high tech components and, and cutting edge software is what she specifically referred to. and so essentially trying to stop russia get, get ahold of technologies that are important to the feature 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 specifics are 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 international payment system that the, the majority of international financial transaction payments go through cutting russia off of that would be a major step. and we don't really have

a very clear signal yet of, of whether that's something they want to do now, or maybe whether that's something they want to hold back for. but if there is even any further escalation beyond this point. now, what will be keeping our eye on what exactly is decided there with you later? thanks, richard, we'll talk to you in just a little bit. but remind you now where we earth, where things stand. at the moment, the russia has launched a full scale invasion of ukraine attack, some targets across the country. he says, dozens of people have been killed. many have been injured. it is a large scale air and ground assault by russian forces. russian president, goodness says he has launched the military operation to quote, secure the future of russia as a sovereign nation. western leaders have vowed to impose crippling sanction. we've seen german chance our last shot joining were leaders in condemning rushes invasion of ukraine. he promised solidarity with ukraine and tough sanctions for russia. take a look. this 24th of february is a terrible day for ukraine and

a very dark day for you. i'm under for attacking ukraine. russian president, putin is blatantly infringing on international law like damage, like putin is bringing suffering over ukraine and his direct neighbor. he's infringing on the field at the borders of ukraine. he is endangering the lives of countless innocent people in ukraine at the brother country of russia. and in doing so, he is questioning the piece structure of our entire continent. there is no justification for any of this. this is pu tunes war robert, him, you know, i said to ukrainian president lensky in a phone, call them today that in these dark hours, ukraine and its citizens have are for solidarity under the actual,

in view of the current development this morning, i have convened the security cabinets so that the government can debate on the situation and make decisions about how to proceed from here together. all german citizens in ukraine, i would like to ask most urgently to leave ukraine for their own safety. for the dental distortion when the president of the german. when does doug, i have asked to convene a special meeting of the parliament where i will give a special state address as the head of the g 7. this afternoon, i will be convening a meeting of the g 7 as a video conference looking for a clear coordinated response to the situation will be coordinating closely with our international partners in natal and in the european union today in order to place further severe sanctions against russia now and it is good that we

have prepared for this event you ality carefully. the aim of our sanctions is to make it clear to the russian leadership, that they will pay a better price for this aggression. it remains to be seen, but it will be clear that putin has made a terrible mistake by unleashing this war. let me address a word to our nato partners in poland, the baltic states, romania. let me assure you that we understand your concerns in the light of these developments all too well and we will support you. germany is committed to the mutual defense clause of nato, together with the french president. i would suggest that the heads of date and government of the nato countries meet in presence to debate the situation. this evening i will be traveling to brussels within the

e u. heads of state and government. we will be debating the situation, which is, as we know, very serious, i would like to call on russian president, put in to stop his military attack now to stop the bloodshed and to withdraw his troops from ukrainian territory completely. thank you. we've got our chief political editor, michelle, give them back with us, michelle. we heard all i feel safe earlier. this is putins whar, what did you make of the statements that he delivered a little while ago? it's a sobering moment also for the german government. i mean, as all our sites at the end appeals to vladimir putin to withdraw his, his troops. he knows exactly that this will lead. absolutely, nowhere. i was on that trip to moscow last in tuesday of last week, where all sorts of was trying to convince vladimir putin to, to back down not to go ahead. to sit down at the negotiating table after he had

received a response from nato and the you to his security demands of whit or shots, felt confident would, although russia didn't agree with what it got back would at least be a starting point for negotiations. now just over a week later and it appears we are in a completely different world where one has to worry whether they even are threads of communication with moscow at this very moment in time. that would allow some kind of segue out of this current situation. so it is clearly all so it's now naming this what it is, a war, hooton's war and, and threatening those consequences which we will learn more of during the course of today. it is a complete tone around in strategy, a moment of realization and of shock that all those efforts amounted to absolutely nothing that diplomacy never really had

a chance. after we heard nato secretary general installed back say that this was a long flight planned attack made as a wake up call. indeed, mikaela also talked about the flurry of activity coming up the she 7 meeting the meeting of european leaders. also, nato was holding a meeting tomorrow. so what do you think we can expect going forward and the coming hours and even days or we'll, we'll see that a catalogue of punishing sanctions. we will also see all of these leaders who are coming out today in unity having to explain to their own populations what this means in actual terms for them. because an energy price is already soaring, everybody will have to pay part of the price of this confrontation. now, of those sanctions that will hurt both sides. and it really is a historical moment of where everything we've grown up with. i mean, look, this is what i brought in with me today. this is my great grandfather was called,

was mobilized in the lead up to the 1st world war here in germany, in 1914. and everybody addressed by all sorts today by those european leaders grew up with the promise that they would never have something like this in the post for their father, for their son, for their brother. and now it, there seems to be an all out confrontation within driving distance here on european soil again. so quite a lot of communication that has to be done with own populations. and that unity needs to be credible for vladimir putin to stop him from going any further than reaching this red line, which is clearly just done better. the question, because we know that the threat of these severe sanctions, economic and political thanks shouldn't have been on the table. in fact, that was what this entire flurry of diplomatic activity you referred to in that trip you were on with chance or shows was about was to make clear to present,

wouldn't that the ultimate price would be paid if he did invade, and yet it has come to this so order concerns here in berlin that these tools that they have at their disposal that the european union has at its disposal are not enough. his there are concerns and i think that there will have to be some room left for asked further escalation on the sanctions level. but what we've also learned is that there simply was no common language between both sides. and this is something we're all of. so as the german chances own party was adamant that there needed to be new ways to find a dialogue with russia, well, they are holding an emergency meeting today to find out how they could be so wrong . and we're seeing the former defense minister and they've come combo and speak of a historical failure today. while she was in charge of that she has politically nothing to lose any more. that is why she is clearly tweeting so freely about what is a historical failure to recognize what was going on on the russian side. unable to

look into putin's head, yes, but clearly not having spoken the same language, not having understood that when vladimir putin talks about history, he's talking about something he needs to fix, and we, europeans, or the trans atlantic ties nato are talking about something. everybody wants to leave in the past, so clearly this is a political failure on all sides. thanks makella, we'll talk to a little bit later again. now we understand that this russian invasion is also being accompanied by a barrage of cyber attacks. those are the reports that we've seen coming in to us today earlier today. ukrainian official saying that such attacks were coming nonstop. and so we brought in our chief technology, a correspondent in the studio with a seriana galka to tell us more about this young. what can you tell us about what the cyber attacks have done and, and the breath and scale of them. with tex, come in dozens of different shapes and forms. but right now in ukraine we actually

see particularly 2 types of attacks. a, there are these so called denial of service attacks where websites are essentially bombarded with masses of requests so that they collapse. and that's how um, several websites of ukrainian ministries for brought down. um, those details attacks are actually pretty crude, technically, but they can be effective. and then there's a 2nd type of attack that we're seeing right now, which is much more sophisticated are where attackers really spend weeks month trying to get into the computer systems of their opponents. and once they're in there, they implement malware, and then they just wait for the right moment. and once it's there, this strike and they encrypt data, they delete data. and that's actually the kind of attack we're also seeing in ukraine right now. i'm according to a cyber security company, m e cert mom. and we've seen these attacks on several ukrainian institutions and institutions with tastes. we ukraine abroad as well. so we're talking about really

a well coordinated series of cyber attacks. yes. okay, so, so what exactly can russia achieve if russia is proven to be behind the cyber attacks or something we should say, that is not a certain that's true. and again, it's also important to sort of like state for the record that in the past, rushes was denied involvement in these kind of cyber attacks. but, you know, generally speaking, there are 3 main reasons why countries use cyber operations in military conflict. first of all, espionage, you know, it's about sort of obtaining knowledge about your n b, about your opponent. they're not that you're not supposed to have and be it's about on disrupting communication. and, you know, during times of conflict, access to information often is key. and then see, and i think that's actually really important. there's sort of a psychological element if you will. i mean, you know, these attacks are about sewing confusing. so in cares. it's about thickening the fog of war, if you will. and it's really about sort of like sending up the message we managed

to take over control over your computers and in that sense they are often very effective actually. that's a really important point, especially as you say, fog of war we're seeing so many images flood in that it's hard to understand exactly what's happening on the ground. yeah, no, sure. last question. and what can ukraine do about the cyber attacks to restore, for example, some of the services, and also to prevent this type of confusion that you're discuss you were discussing . i mean, you know, there's only so much you can do about cyber attacks. you can fight back, there are ways to fight back and countries like ukraine, essentially, all countries in the world now have this kind of 1st response units that they send out. and that being said, you know, once intruders are inside your computer system, it's always an uphill battle. and it's very difficult. and actually a lot of experts say, you know, you, you should try to keep them out of your system in the 1st place. but that is something that takes time you need to hire me to find the right expertise them build up protection measures. that's nothing that you can do overnight. married our

chief technology corresponding interest alco with the story. thanks for bringing us this reporting. this is a deliberate, cold blooded, and long planned invasion. despite its litany of lies denials on this information, the criminal intentions are clear for the world to see russia leaders bear full responsibility for their reckless actions on the lives lost. ne dallas condemn russian invasion of ukraine in the strongest possible terms. it is a blatant violation of international law, an act of aggression against a sovereign, independent and peaceful country. on the see the strips to you to come pick security. and that was the nato secretary general against oldenburg, a speaking just

a short while ago on the situation. and let's bring you up to date on where we stand. russia has launched a full scale invasion of ukraine with attacks on targets across the country. here it says, dozens of people have been killed, many have been injured. it is a large scale air and ground to felt by russian forces. the russian president vladimir putin says he has launched this military operation to quote, secure the future of russia as a sovereign nation within western leaders, vowing to impose crippling sanctions swiftly. right, richard, we've been talking a bit about the bigger picture here, but maybe you can help us bring all of these threats together and give us an idea of where things stand at the moment. i mean, what we know essentially what has happened so, well, i mean, vladimir putin has gone ahead. we've been talking about all the scenarios in recent weeks about, you know, well question, what is, what does he even want to achieve? what's he doing? what's this military build up all about to see really want to invade, which he really do something that.