ah, some this, i think it was worth it for me to come to germany. i showed them i got my license to work as a swimming instructor. and now i teach children and adults with what's your story? take part, share it on info, migrant dot net. ah, civilians who have never touched a gun or taking up arms to defend their homelands. more than half a 1000000 others have fled ukraine following vladimir putin's unprovoked assault on his peaceful and sovereign neighbor in russia, financial carnage as the rubel tanks. thanks to unprecedented international sanctions. and the un secretary general warns nothing would justify the use of nuclear weapons as russia puts its nuclear forces on high alert. i'm clear, richardson in berlin, and this is the day. ah

shira. i'll say it again. 4 and a half 1000 russian occupiers have been killed. these escalating violence, which is resulting in civilian deaths, improving children, historically and accept nato is not a russia. this was started by russia, and i can stop this war any time. if you do not believe your commanders not to believe your propagandists to simply save your own lives, leave you laugh because you love ah, welcome to the show and thank you so much for joining us. we begin the day with the ongoing battle for ukraine fighting between russian and ukrainian forces has been bitter and brutal taking place in heavily populated civilian areas. the number of

people dying is mounting. as the ukrainian army does its best to hold off the russian attackers. normal people are helping to resist the offensive in any way they can. viral videos show people across ukraine, stopping russian tanks in their tracks and angrily confronting soldiers in a town close to the border with russia. a group of ukrainians brought the russian advanced rank grinding halts. this footage shows hundreds of unarmed people walking toward an armored column. the russian soldiers had stopped to ask for directions when they found themselves surrounded by locals. and that is just one of several instances of ukrainian civilians facing down russian tanks. others are taking up arms to defend their cities. many have never fired a gun in their lives, moves yet. we've already started issuing arms with them to protect our land. we will issue them to any one who is willing to take them to any one who is ready to protect our sovereignty. within that, a yellow

the, there are people with military experience, war veterans. and then there are people who've swap their pens and keyboards for guns. oh, so you're good . there was a good, really scared. but now we are a didn't fight. and like, quite like i want to fight, i want to leave on my earth in my great, in my peacefully ukraine. we are doing this because someone has to do it. we've done a little higher and the are making as many multiple cocktails as we are

asked by territorial defense forces. and we will do it until the when mutual culture, some new cat comes with let's cross. now to nick connelly, our correspondent who has been reporting from western ukraine, if you've been with us, you know, he's been covering this conflict tirelessly. and we've just seen now footage of ordinary ukrainians blocking advancing tanks and soldiers. how wide spread is this kind of behavior in ukraine? while you look at the joke feat, clerical, the video on social media, it seems to be pretty widespread. that was in ukraine far north on that, on the rest of the borders. you mentioned. there's another video that's been doing the rounds from his own region. mia, an ex crimea. we have an older man walking up to 2 very heavily armed russian soldiers, which is guarding what looks to be a bridge is another kind of infrastructure and his shots renting them. and he told them that they are not wanted here, that this is not where anyone wants to see them,

that they should go home. this is not their land, and it's a little bit of business for happens in ukraine. and then at the end of its onslaught, he tells them and they have no ability to talk back. they stimulate, shocked by his greatness. he tells me that i am ethnically russian, but i'm system ukraine. and i don't want russia here in ukraine, and certainly they haven't time again. yeah. nick, those are made for good viral videos. but i want to ask you how helpful is this actually installing russia's advance? well, i think it is actually doing a lot to undermine the morale of those russian soldiers, many of whom were not really ever told why they're coming here. we've heard from the russian leadership, they want to demilitarized and de notified they put it ukraine. but i don't think anyone's ever made any effort to explain that to ordinary russian soldiers what they're doing here. and there are lots of russians sold, abandoning that tank, that have run out of petrol that have run out of other supplies where they've had

that ties and shot at. and you do get a sense that many of these, especially very young recruits, have no clue why they realize that actually going to place don't resistance where they were told by the commanders that they would be met if not with flowers, but with my population that was probably happy to see them. so i think that is quite an important thing. and we've also seen the ukrainians now going into defensive targeting. russians on social media targeting soldiers were still in russia, targeting their families, basically why the russian side to basically make the price of them coming here, caitlin and for the cranium civilians on the battle lines. i mean, where are their weapons coming from? does ukraine have enough weapons to equip them and enough time to train them? i mean depends what kinds weapon system we're talking about. i mean, the government here has handed out tens of thousands of rifles, of you know, 70 to kind of basic equipment that was hand that was available in lodge in last apply in government storage units. then you'll see there is the other kind of

weapon coming in now from ukraine's international partners posting at and t aircraft missiles, the javelin, anti tank missiles there is told karen ukraine, the if the military comes into more press, 8 military units are basically disbursed by an irrational also that those kinds of things that can be operate by single person to be, can be carried on the shoulder that they will be handed out to people to take home and basically wage campaign against the russian troops and crania. and president preliminaries the landscape has also directed an appeal for more soldiers to the rest of the world. i want to play some of what he said, and then we'll come back to you here neck, keith. more to those those from abroad who can defend ukraine or do it purposefully . united lee, and continuously, all friends of ukraine who wants to join the defense? come, we will give you a weapons. and we the all the details of how to implement this will be announced in the near future glory to all those who defend ukraine to day. you are heroes.

greenwich, wouldn't you flop away? and foreign fighters also being invited to join in i do, we know how many have responded to the call? i think, but now it's pretty difficult to tell. we heard today that the french foreign legion we're going to allow, if ukrainian members to come back to their mental heights. and they certainly seems to be a big boss around this on social media has to be said, this isn't totally new. they're all foreigners fighting in dumbass. they have been since 2014 on the side of ukraine. americans, western europeans, a small in them back be said, a foreign. those are fighting on the other side for those russian back separatists . but i think there is a real hope here in ukraine that the support and the awareness of this conflict is growing that finally, people in western europe in north america are taking notes or what's going on ukraine. the finally, they feel like the rest of the world is seeing rush and behavior towards ukraine and more broadly, the same way they have seen for a long time. they felt like they were just not heard, not listen to a not believed that. now with this attack on ukraine in the middle of the night,

with no warning, they feel like the rest of the world finally getting it. and they hope, apart from weapons apart from sanctions apart from money and also have that kind of personal own on the ground floor. even if you know, we know that nato is not going to send troops in official capacity, but at least they can hope that some people with military experience of fighting in nato trained armies would add to their bits defend themselves. or correspond next, connolly and western ukraine. thank you so much for that update. ah. and will some stay and resist? others are fleeing the fighting. the european union is bracing for the arrival of millions of refugees from ukraine. more than 300000 people are already believed to have crossed the border into neighboring poland. authorities there have set up emergency shelters to house the new arrivals. some families are even opening up their homes to ukrainian families. but the situation in some places on the border

has turned into a humanitarian crisis with limited access to food and sanitation. and is believed that as many as 2000000 ukrainians have migrated to poland since the annexation of crimea in 2014. so poland is one of the main destinations for people fleeing fighting. but germany is also preparing to give refugees shelter around 2000 ukrainians. have already arrived here and many more are expected the training from war saw. but some of its passengers have escaped, held the 1st refugees. and what is the largest war in europe? the century among the visa, who until just days ago, enjoyed a peaceful life. and she told me i, northwest ukraine. that's well, a federal trans february 24th. it was very sudden saw on zix for my mother called me at 6 am and told me were at war vida. the

greek by owns shot, the zix. every one started panicking. lloyd to the clock in the morning. i was still sleeping. what the lord didn't guess laughing a welcome committee has set up here a barrel in central station to help you. a rivals find their way. organizers use the messaging, a telegram to coordinate offers of shelter, clothes, food, and language skills. there's like large telegram group where we can just shoot a message and ask if there's a kind of accommodation for 2 or 3 people and then somebody would say, yeah, here i can pick somebody up. it's all private right now. i have a lot of fruits of mostly bars, goodson, just simple things that i could pass as people move to the next location. am on the

daughter of a somali and refugee was summoned to help by family history. an issue that's pretty close to my heart, my dad and his family arrives in the us. so strategies from somalia and i'm half german. and so i really felt as there was a christ, some people were coming that i was going to show up because someone did it for my own family. rita is now trying to re unite with her son and western germany. but the trauma we shouldn't days is impossible to forget via haben urban acton emma in we'd been sleeping in the basin mother in kara. oh, we are haben emma. we were constantly alert emma bomb been there while we see volume, zonker tangs driving down the street. i'll just throw, sir, it was frightening and terrible people were panicking. it was really all for well,

little surprise then that european governments are expecting many more desperate people to follow in vito's footsteps in search of peace. ah, russians are scrambling to withdraw money from banks with long lines forming a cash machines across the country. that's as the rubel plunges to record lows due to new western sanctions. it's now dropped more than 30 percent against the u. s. dollar. in an attempt to prop up the ruble, rushes central bank has doubled its key interest rate to an unprecedented 20 percent. so let's take this chance to get a recap of some of the sanctions leveled at russia. the european union and its allies have agreed to block major russian banks from the swift global payment system. western nations have put other tough restrictions on russian banks. they've also caught the ability of the russian state to access capital markets. their asset freezes and cromwell bands for a number of individuals,

including russian president vladimir putin, himself, as well as politicians and oligarchy, who are close to him and other sanctions target the technology sector. the e. u will stop supplying high tech components and software to russia and the u. s. says it will restrict rush has access to semiconductors, computers and telecoms equipment central im here in the studio now for more is steven and beardsley from the business. hi, stephen of rubel, its plummeting. does that mean that western sanctions are already having an effect response of the sanctions? we could say, right? we know that people don't want to be tied to a currency that's going to be incredibly limited, and that's going to be the case of the ruble. and so wants that currency starts being traded in such a heavy way then that the values it and then people want to get rid of even more they do that. and so that precipitates the fall, the thing is, we haven't even seen the full exposure perhaps because trading has actually been sort of limited today. so it has been a historic drop, but it could have been even worse. we have seen capital controls come into place.

we have seen these efforts to try and prop up create demand for the rubel. but the, i mean, the fact of the matter is these. this is an unprecedented level of sanctions. we've seen, we've never seen something like this for an economy as large as russia. the 11th largest economy in the world. sure, it's not china, it's not the u. s. but that's massive still. you know, the previously, we've seen sanctions against iran, venezuela, you know, economies of this size. so this is something that we don't really have a level of knowing what it exactly means, but the rubel is going to put a lot of pressure on people. now the sanctions, they're obviously meant to punish putin and the oligarchs around him. but they will also have an impact on ordinary people in russia. and how much is this going to affect them? whether you saw the lines for people trying to get cash, right. so they're worried about the cash in the banks. if there's going to be runs on banks, that's a concern. is there going to be a series of systematic bank collapses? what happens to people savings? these are the issues that people are going to have a lot of loans and mortgages from what i understand in russia are denominated in

other currencies. so what that means is that they just got more expensive a lot more expensive, and now they perhaps can even pay them because there's a blocking system put on between their bank or between the swift messaging system between multiple financial centers. so they might not even be able to pay back what's become a worthless market in the 1st place. so there's a lot of these questions and then you also have the systematic question. if the state banks are felling failing and then the country itself is potentially in default, what happens to your state pension for example? and so this is the pressure that's being put on people. and he said, the stakes are high on, but could these sanctions, i mean, could they actually be enough to change putin's mind to bring an end to this? one of the question, right? no, and no one really knows. you know, you're looking at something that is going to undermine a state of society and such a way. you can only imagine that there would have to be a lot more pressure than there had been previously. and so i think that's the thinking here. obviously want to target the war machine itself. and by doing,

by charging the reserves, for example, we both heard about the central reserves, the access that they're going or i should say, the freezing of these reserves that are overseas. that means that basically taking securities and us dollars, euros, put, and can't just liquidate that into cash, that you can then use to buy more war machinery or whatever you want to call it. and so that limits his option. so there is that effect, but really that ruble, what's happening there? what's happening with a bank, what's happening with people savings, that is going to rate a groundswell, discontent you can imagine. and the question is, what happens from there? we don't know, steven, there's a thank you for coming into the studio with that update. really appreciate your time. ah. but when you put those, that when you heard them, whoever tries to stop us and create further threats to our country, to our people, and they should know that russia's response will be immediate and lead to consequences. you've never seen in your history. certainly it is

a reference to the use of nuclear weapons. lucy does not hope. officials from leading nato countries have been making aggressive statements was go pretty gross roomies through. that is why i've ordered the defense minister and chief of the general staff to put our deterrent forces on high combat alert. a fool with whom you senior, we would. this is another ex escalade, tore an unnecessary step that threatens us all. one can not imagine some one able to say this kind of things. we heard of president vladimir putin there announcing he has put his countries and nuclear weapons systems on high alert. it's a reminder that russia is a nuclear superpower, and that the states could not be higher before his invasion of ukraine put in order to military drills involving his arsenal of nuclear capable missiles. he oversaw these drills personally joined in his situation. room by bella, russian leader,

alexander, and the shanker. the kremlin said that exercises were part of a regular training and denied they signaled an escalation. and my next guest is considered one of the world's leading experts on russia's nuclear arsenal. and very pleased to welcome that to the day hovel pod make. he is an independent analysis analyst excuse me, based in geneva. and he runs his research project russian nuclear force, as a very warm welcome to you on potent he's put his nuclear deterrent on high alert. what does that mean in practical terms? oh boy, i think the correction is an order, in fact a prison put in there. so the higher word and it appears that what was done is not in her own to raising the level to lower the nuclear forces. and that was in fact confirmed just

earlier today by the united states officials who said that the see no visible signs of movements of any kind of a nuclear force related equipment. which means that basically the level of alert, in fact remain the same. just to clarify, the russian military previously did say that it's nuclear, to turn, forces were put on high alert. i in line with putin's order directly is not. is that not correct? well, the, the, the details of the, the phrase that was used was that the strategic nuclear forces were put under the special mode of combo duty. and that special mood largely reflect details some

almost or measures. for example, today the minister of defense a report from now on the cruise that service or is command centers or have been reinforced. that means they go from like 2 sheets, 3 sheets and a presence in the human presence. but again, the important thing is that the, the actual, the actual forces or the, or not this is really brought to higher, higher, higher state court, which is very general, has expressed concern about what has happened. so i want to ask you, what is russia's capability at this point? i mean, how, how dangerous is the situation in which we find ourselves?

yeah, no, that's it. oh, this is not to say that there is nothing to be concerned about russia. and to begin with, russian forces, russia, strategic inquiry forces are on a very much constant alert all the time. i think the specifically, the intercontinental ballistic missiles, a total carry more than 1000 warheads or higher degree for this all the time. what, what happened was that russia have moved, it's given a control system to us, a state where it is more protective if you will. ready a more stable and basically sending a signal that nobody should even think about attacking our forces. because whatever you can do, we are prepared and russia would be able to respond adequately. and how likely is

it then that would actually order a strike? well, i think the probability that a russian president would order kind of a 1st strike is very much 0 only because the russian forces do not have the ability to execute this kind of a strike effectively. at the same time, i think it is very dangerous about nuclear forces were brought to these very complex and very difficult conflict to begin with. and the, the, the fact that the russian president is willing to signal very explicitly that you are forces are part of the equation here. i think this is

a very, a dangerous. ringback side, and on some level, i think the reaction of the united states was particularly helpful because of the instead of kind of raising the stakes and or responding in kind of the united states. so well, we do believe nuclear weapons should not be part of this equation, should not be part of the conflict. and i think this is the, exactly the message that the international community in general, just being i that states should sent to russia that it is irresponsible and acceptable to involve to waive your core welcomes. like that. sedation, like i pub upon veg, expert on russian nuclear forces,

really appreciate you taking the time to join us on w. ah. and the world of sports is moving to isolate russia after its invasion of ukraine football world governing body fee for and it's european counterpart you way for have suspended russian teams from all competitions. the decision in effect of bands, russia from the upcoming world cup playoffs, and the 2022 was cut itself. if i had already said russian, we have to play it matches on neutral ground without spectators of poland, sweden and the czech republic. and england then said they would not play against russia. that was the day as ever the conversation doesn't continue online. you'll find us on twitter under the handle dw news from us here in berlin to wherever in the world you might be. joining us from, thanks for spending part of your day with us and i. richardson in berlin. a bye

thanks so much. i

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get away connection with they've had no peace for for decades. the people of iraq your countries devastated. and there's no way to define how did it come to this with key witnesses reveal and chris identity story

they were presenting the you as they knew what the consequences of these sanctions are. and they've liked the world about does he make it someone could kill his friends and as a fee and so easily was a whole night, like he behaved exactly like said dumber and the poison spread from their homes. ah, let my zip in the great documentary series destruction of a nation start to march forth on d w. ah ah

ah ah ah, this is dw news coming to line from berlin. russian forces close in on chia satellite images show a 60 kilometer long convoy just north of the city. ukrainian forces have so far managed to fend all russian attacks on the capital. also coming out rockets, rain down on car cape ukraine's 2nd largest city is bombarded as russia. adults see huge tactics. 40 say almost a 1000 residents have been killed and hundreds injured. and a neighborly welcome.