what are you expecting in the days ahead, chris? well, you have mentioned the 4000000 figures. nobody really knows how many people will come, but they are still coming and still very cold. the people who are coming like it was in the hall, mainly women and children. i for young women changing baby on the, on the frozen ground. they had no other choice off and people are coming as pedestrians over the over the border. so the situation for many of the people who really desperate, especially since they know that they have left behind last, once that ukraine. and i'm afraid these people will need help for a long time. chris, thank you very much for talking with this was chris mensa, senior spokesperson for the you and hcr the majority of ukrainian refugees are now in poland, hungary, bulgaria,

moldova and romania. several european rail companies have promised free travel to refugees further into the continent. volunteers are offering their support at railway stations such as here in berlin. the train is from war saw, but some of its passengers have escaped, held the 1st refugees. and what is the largest war in europe this century? among the visa, who until just days ago, enjoy the peaceful life. and she told me i northwest ukraine. that's well, a student trans february 24th. it was very sudden saw on zix for my mother called me at 6 am and told me we are at war vida. the greek by sean, the zix. everyone started panicking on lloyd to o'clock in the morning were still sleeping. what the lord did not guess laughing

a welcome committee has set up here at beryl in central station to help your rivals find their way. organizers use the messaging app 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 some 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 fruit of mostly bars, goodson nuts, 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 arrived in the u. s. s. refugees and somalia. i am half german. and so i really felt as there was

a crisis and people were coming that i was going to show up because someone did it for my own family. rita is now trying to reunite with her son and western germany. but the trauma we shouldn't days is impossible to forget. we are have been urban acton emma in. we'd been sleeping in the basin in ghana. her there had been emma, we were constantly alert him or bonbon there while he's you all need zonker tangs driving down the street. i'll just rasa it was frightening. i am terrible and people were panicking. it was really our fiber. little surprised then that european governments are expecting many more desperate people to follow and veto his footsteps in search of peace. you are watching dw news coming to live from berlin. if you're just joining us. this is special,

extended coverage of the war in ukraine. my name is terry martin, just to recap of the latest on russia's invasion of ukraine. it's now in his 6th day. russian troops are continuing their advance on kia satellite images appear to show a convoy of military vehicles stretching more than 60 kilometers. just north of the city, the congo includes hundreds of armored vehicles, tanks, and artillery. it's reported to be about 25 kilometers from kia. ukrainian forces have so far held off, attacks by russian forces near the capital destroying several russian vehicles close to the city center. air raid sirens had been sounding in kiya in recent hours . on monday, russian forces bombarded ukraine's 2nd biggest city car heap, destroying dozens of residential buildings. the crane authorities say several people have been killed in the ongoing attack. ah,

an onslaught in her chief, a city with 1500000 residents. ukraine sands, russia targeted residential buildings with volleys of rocket people in a maternity ward forced to flee to a bomb shelter. a very ukraine's president has condemned the bombardment calling for it to be brought to for an international tribunal or is he to day? russian forces brutally attacked harkey using rockets and clearly a war crime, peaceful city, peaceful residential areas, no military facilities, dozens of eye witness records prove this was not a mistake, but the deliberate destruction of people, the russians knew where they were shooting with these 3 leg. moscow denies the accusations ever more civilians are joining the fight to push back russian troops from har keith. we have so much as it might have 6 children at home and

a wife or i'm from kirk eve. the day before yesterday i decided to take up arms and protect my city. and yes, i knew when i made my decision, of course my wife and my 10 year old son cried my eyes thought they tried to stop me from joining the fighters vehicle. but finally, they understood, gosh, it's our land that we have to defend. we can't back down. so most will you new political ukraine is also inviting foreigners to fight for the country as it braces for a new phase in the war. d. w, correspond mathias bellinger is in central ukraine on his way to live. oh, good to see mateus. we just saw harrowing pictures from ukraine. second biggest city car came. what are you hearing about the situation? yeah, this, the city has been shelved and a lot of residential quarters have been shelved her. that's what we're hearing their pictures on the line with dead bodies and all the damage that has been done. rockets hitting, hitting apartments and, and it seems to be very dire. fighting,

i think has been going on for a long time there. and it's one of the, the worst places in this war so far, the very worst place in this war. so, but here's what can you tell us about the situation in the rest of the country. our russian troops continuing their advance yet is heavy fighting everywhere where the russian troops have entered and they have made some territorial gains. however, resistance is also fierce and a lot of ukrainians, as we've seen, it also are joining the army or the emitter territorial defense that they're the amateur battalions that are supporting the army. um and so, so far what we see is that, of course, russia has more troops has more military equipment and is advancing. but it's not advancing as fast as they might have hoped. and at the moment the ukrainians

withstand very well, but rush has also not deployed. many of their troops now talks took place yesterday between ukrainian or russian representatives. did those talks achieve anything mathias? they did not, and nobody expected them to, but they have to go on foot for of course there's no side would, would, would reject these talks at this stage. but i mean, the logic is very clear. country invades another one and then it offers talks after 5 days. what can they offer? do they offer to withdraw or sorry, we came here and made a mistake. we are going now not that's not what they came for. they did not make a substantial after they read it, rated that demands that had they had placed before the war. and that have led to this incursion of a demilitarization, as they call it, of ukraine. our country under attack will of course not dim demilitarize unless it surrenders, and that's absolutely not the mood in either the government nor the army,

nor the population we saw in our port how many ukrainian civilians are joining the fight. tell us more about how that works. is the military handing out weapons to anyone? yeah, we've seen that in some places in key. if the military has handed out weapons to the population, to meet the invaders if they come to the city. but they're also more orderly, a ways to join the, the forces, if you are not a conscript. if you don't are not enlisted in the army, you can enlist in the army as a, as a person who has, who meets the requirements in terms of physical strength and health and everything . but there are also ways to join other parts. there is the so called dead territorial defense battalions. these are people who are less trained militarily and who are not, are supposed to go to the front line to fight, but to support in the hinterland they might be standing at road blocks for example,

or a securing a strategic places. they also have of like a very basic, but very, very basic military training. they might know how to use a gun, what they don't usually know anything about military tactics or so. and their, their job is to keep, keep, but did you free the resources of the army to keep the just somebody passed and he said, glory to ukraine and dare to, to support the army in these ways. and he has thank you very much for your reporting. that was our correspond mathias billing, other reporting from central your ukraine in yes, a further escalation of tensions president vladimir putin placed his country's nuclear forces on high alert on sunday, before the invasion of ukraine began. routine ordered military drills involving his arsenal of nuclear capable miss out the over saw them personally with the leader of

better roost. alexander lucas shanker, the kremlin, had said those exercises were part of regular training and denied. they signaled an escalation. but russia invaded ukraine on thursday, putting blamed aggressive statements from nato for the change in posture. we should those talk officials from leading nato countries have been making aggressive statements with because we me 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. let's bring in pablo pod, vic here. a he is considered and leading expert on russia's nuclear arsenal. he's independent analyst based in geneva. thanks for being with us problem. so putting has put his nuclear deterrent on high alert. what does that mean in practical terms? oh, okay, 1st thing we need to keep in mind is that are forces as well as other forces are

constantly on high alert. more than thousands of warheads are deployed on intercontinental ballistic missiles. and they are very higher than this of what these move up was announced. on sunday meant it was not increasing the number of missiles for submarines out there. apparently, it was the united states has now detected any movements of forces that would indicate that what it appears to me is that the, it was a signal to the united states are 1st and foremost, are russian forces or have taken steps to protect themselves from of the potential attack and the signal is basic, we don't,

you don't even try, don't even think about attacking russia. what is russia's nuclear capability? we know that russia has many nuclear weapons, but how dangerous, how dangerous is it with city? because, well, it's a, it's quite dangerous. as i said, the around 1000 were, has on intercontinental ballistic missiles. only there are summaries. there are bombers overall. russia is one of 2 major nuclear powers. it has more than 4. ready ready 1000 or hands in its arsenal as the united states actually does. and it is something to consider apparently as the

calculation in the kremlin that people will. ready be taking the signals seriously and not interfere on behalf of the crate. and you are an expert on russia nuclear arsenal. do you believe that president vladimir putin would actually order a nuclear missile strike if he felt threatened me? well, i certainly hope that he would not, but the problem is that and what i find very problematic is that he explicitly brought weapons into this conflict. even even the as a signal given the rhetorical level of a conflict that very complex could involve. ready area and expected developments,

and now that we know that russia indicated or said actually explicitly that does consider newkirk has to be a factor of things can go in many wrong ways. i think it was good that the united states did not react in a similar fashion. are they not, as they did not indicate that they would want to bring these forces to higher alert and it was good to see that the un general assembly session yesterday a lot of states cold. ready about move, introduction of nuclear weapons, they called it an acceptable and in your ear. you're responsible. and i think that should be of the message. the reaction should be that nuclear weapons should not belong to, to any conflict in fact, but definitely they should not be any were clear of this conflict. ok,

here we are with russia having invaded a sovereign country. it is now at least sending a rhetorical signal about it's nuclear weapons. what can be done by the west in this situation to de escalate? what's happening and perhaps bring about, say, 8 some sort of solution that doesn't involve further bloodshed. well that's, that's a very difficult problem. and i, i think since, as you said correctly, oh, we are dealing with the you queer, you queer in states here. it's everybody shoot, tried very carefully because or as i said, there are possible unexpected and unpredictable developments here. and

we would think that a use of nuclear weapons is on conceivable. but then this whole invasion was inconceivable just about a week ago. so i think the message should be very firm and clear as it says, and not just from the west, but from other countries as well. as i said, it's irresponsible and acceptable to waive your nuclear weapons around of the way that russia did hobble pot, big an expert on rushes nuclear capabilities. thank you very much for talking with us. thanks for having me. turkey says it will block russian warships from the keep boss for us and darden ells, straits, prohibiting access for naval vessels to the black sea. the montoya convention of $936.00 gives turkey the right to bar warships of quote belligerent countries. from the 2 straight, several russian warships have sailed through the straits in the past weeks. turkey

said it was closing the waterway to prevent an escalation of the war. here's how turkish present, rich of time add on announced the move mom through. so this miss in and we are determined to use the authority given to us by the mantra convention regarding the marine traffic in straits to prevent an escalation of the crisis. coloma cut out on the head as we voice said we are in favor of respecting ukraine sovereignty, political unity and territorial integrity. just didn't miss in that units. zillion, we see russia's attack on ukraine as unacceptable and appreciate the fight of the ukrainian people and administration. they're all good and that the image, ideally, dr. cross straight over to our correspondent, you johan, who is standing by force in istanbul. eula, tell us more about the turkish president's announcement. what exactly has he decided? well, 1st of all,

and it's not so very clear, right? now, which kind of impact turkey's decision the president's decision will have on the conflict there on, on the war. but it certainly sends a strong message. we heard the president talk last night, but we also heard turkey's foreign minister may have looked ciao, shall say, and let me quote him a here in turkey has alerted both countries of the region and elsewhere, not to pass warships through the black sea. we are applying them on true convention . now you have mentioned that international treaty from $936.00 already them on true convention. it usually governs the free movement of commercial ships through the darden els and boisterous trades in peace time. but it also grands turkey the right to limit to stop warships military vessels in times of war. now, turkey has been kind of hesitant to refer to the conflict as officially as

a war until sunday. that's when they changed their authority. they had previously always been talking about a military operation. on sunday, they suddenly started calling russia the sold on ukraine, a warrant that legally paved the way for the move that we're seeing now. but of course, it remains to be seen. what will happen if a russian warship attempts to pass these 2 waterways on it on their way to the black sea? what will turkey do? that's the question. okay, so a real sea change as it were with turkey, adopting language that russia does not like to hear katra describing the conflict in ukraine as a war and not just a military operation. that is an important development. and so what we're looking at 2 specific waterways here that turkey is blocking our with respect to russian warships are the darden els and the boss for us. how important are these waterways?

so they're strategically, very, very important. and that's why ukraine had asked turkey already on the 1st day of the russian invasion to close these 2 waterways, 2 russian warships. so they cannot send reinforcements to the black sea, the dodger nails and the boss for straits are the only way in and out of the black sea. they connect the mediterranean with the black sea. russia has its black sea fleet over there, a number of warships that as far as we know, are being used in the a full to on ukraine right now. so there is an interest there from ukraine for turkey to block the passage of a warship, russian warships. it is also economically a very important, it's important for agricultural trade for oil trade or russia and ukraine together . and let me just mentioned that figure account for more than

a quarter of the global trade in wheat and about a 5th off corn. and that trade was completely thrown into chaos when the russian invasion started. and ukraine had to shut down its ports in the black sea. so it is a crucial region geopolitically, economically turkish prisoner russia party one. he said that turkey will neither abandon ukraine and nor will bounded neither nor ukraine, nor russia. what does that mean? well, geographically you have to know the turkey shares a maritime border with both countries and turkey. the turkish government has cultivated both good relations, economically and politically, with both countries, russia and ukraine in recent years. and that has brought the turkish president in a very delicate position. we have seen him in recent, a weeks and days trying to balance turkey's interests and obligations towards if

the ally ukraine. turkey is a native partner, it has fault combat drones to ukraine with on the other hand, it's ties with moscow because the turkish president knows that he cannot afford an economic full out with russia. turkey depends too much on trade with russia on energy supplies on the agricultural trade on russian tours, even so there is a lot at stake for the turkish government. and that explains the language here that explains why turkish president is so keen on emphasizing that he won't abandon ukraine, but also russia for that you go, you just give us a quick idea of how turkish people are reacting to the war. the new crew. well, what we haven't seen here in turkey, in the big cities are protests in support of ukraine. for example, as we've seen in berlin, where tens of thousands of people took to the streets and recent days to express

their solidarity weeps, we haven't seen something like that. but what we do see is that there is a lot of media coverage. it's one of the top topics here on most of the television channels. there's a lot of life coverage from ukraine and from russia as well. but i, i guess the public doesn't take a clear stance here because of the political situation. and because of the balancing act we've seen here by the turkish government, but of course we've seen a lot of commons also on twitter on, on social media, but no larger protests, only smaller protests are organized by ukrainians, mostly living here in is temple helio. thank you. very much our correspondent, earlier hon there is stumble the world of sports is also moving to isolate russia after its invasion of ukraine, football's world governing body fever and it's european culture party way for have suspended russian teams from all competitions. the decision in effect bones,

russia from the upcoming world cup playoffs, and the 2022 world cup itself keeper had already said russia would have to play this mattress on neutral ground without spectators. but poland, sweden, the church, republican england then said they would not play against russia. you're watching dw news from berlin. just a quick recap of what's been happening in ukraine on the ground. russian troops are continuing their advance on the training capital. kia satellite images appear to show a convoy of military vehicles stretching more than 60 kilometers just north of the city. air raid sirens sounded in the capitol early on tuesday morning. i forget you can always get the w news on the go just downloader app from google play or from the app store. it'll give you access to all this news from around the world as well as push notifications for any breaking news. and if you're part of a new story yourself, including in ukraine,

you can also use the d w app to send us photos and videos of what's happening around here. you're watching t w news from berlin. i'll be back in just a couple of minutes with more, and of course you can get news information anytime you want on our website. that's t w dot com. also find this on youtube and twitter, thanks for watching with

ah, ah, to the point, strong opinions, clear positions, international perspectives. to warn you crane seems even more frightening than before. many people have begun to think the unthinkable. off to russian president levy may booted appeared to suggest that he could be ready to use nuclear weapons. is the conflict entering a new dimension to the point with d w

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ah, ah, this is d w. news coming to you live from berlin. russian forces close in to on pia satellite imagery show a 60 kilometer long convoy just north of the city. ukrainian forces have managed to fend off russian attacks so far. also coming up rockets, brain down, font keep authority, say almost a dozen residents have been killed and hundreds injured in ukraine's 2nd largest city where there's now fear of a food shortage and a neighborly welcome people in eastern poland organize.