that you're the right. let's get more on what's happening in russia. with r d. w, russian affairs analyst konstantin exit. he joined us from talk to in estonia today . od constantine, tell us more about the media legislation that the duma has just passed. what did you most told him just blanket kinda ship coverage of everything that can ever be said about not only this war but base. can he about any action? russian government because anything can be linked to all and it does carry a maximum of 15 years. although there are degrees within the law, it starts with fine and then goes all the way opposite the side. in case there is irreparable damage. ok, what is an irreparable damage? what is the grave damage? how do you measure it? there is nothing about so basically it is

a law that is designed to scare people who are dishonest. you can't evidently mother, there everything go. social media post or everything go pronouncement. but i think it is designed just to shut the lock and then it will be probably far as i understand, to use the law 3 times steady demonstrably against who may be blocked out with the randomly in the regions are mostly doesn't matter. and partition with this both in order to make an example to everyone. this is the whole idea of law in the warning show, then actually something that is applied across the board and the to do my, there's no council of the chamber, sorry, of this legislation in,

in an emergency within 4 weeks. and today's going to be adopted by the check out on the side. but of course these people all vote at the veterans also folks, this is jeff. would you so blanket restrictions you're, you're talking about there. we have seen independent television and radio stations shut down in russia, we've seen online, ah, streaming services with, with independent information, including deutsch, bella and b, b, c. being restricted. can people still get uncensored information in russia and konstantin, about the war and ukraine? well, as long as there is internet, they can the question in circumstances in, in such regimes which really, really brainwashed people is whether there are many takers for independent

information. a lot of people will love themselves and been eating the government because that's much more convenient. it is a confidence, so that is problem number one. problem number 2 is that can, can still get information using a vpn services and stuff like that. and they what we still restricted because this is, this is probably also going to be blocked by the russian gun. you can book everything, but you have to go to quite a few sort of intermediate. eventually to get independent formation. you really need to want it. and i think that for now it's minority wants to get this independent or at least alternative information. so i think maybe the russian government will now is kind of safe. but what happens, but again the situation is so then we can say what kind of the fact all this will

have all the society together with sanctions together with isolation. and i think that eventually this was that, that's my very courses prediction is someone who witnessed the worn down. it's dawn how it probably was accepted or rather not accepted by the saw the, it's the saucer. i think about this war eventually, if it's, it is protracted, will be, become quadrant popular. people will be getting alternative information. there will be more take us for it, but it needs, it needs more. we've seen sporadic protests around russia against the war in ukraine. many in the west are hoping that those protests will be expanded and that perhaps even putins inner circle will begin to, to show their opposition to his policies with ukraine. ah, how likely is it that these protests and the, and the inner opposition within the kremlin?

we'll get to a point where putin might be threatened. excellent question. no one knows, of course, but i think i re, that's the process of the talk is probably already going on. we've seen the board of directors of luke oil, which is one of the largest russian oil companies and issuing yesterday a very cautious bug get a clear statement against the wall. it, it's not just individual people as to both of them. so basically they say ok, we also, we will, we will, we, we're all in it together. so this is an interesting sign. i think of things happening behind closed doors in many boardrooms in many sort of bureaucratic institutions. i do think that a lot of people understand that this is going not very well to put it mildly for, for put in the even probably medium child. and there warrant, they're not only worried about, you know, their assets abroad. some of them even don't have that problem, but they're worried about their lifestyle. they're what is your stability?

they're actually wanted exactly about the same scenario, which you described when a discontent from the bottom. if you wish, a links to discontent at the top. this is, this is the usual scenario for the russian revolution. this is actually, it's an area of the 9891991 from a communist in, in the soviet union and dissolution of the storage unit, which i witnessed with her own eyes. so i suppose that this is what put is going to guard against and probably very soon we'll see up, well kind of purges at the top of those who will be deemed loyal. but these badges usually lead to a situation which others say ok. where next? probably will have to do something about costing. thank you very much. as always, our russian affairs analyst konstantin egg now numerous ukrainian cities are under heavy bombardment by russia but are still remaining under ukrainian control. the black sea port have kept song,

is the only major urban centre to fall since russia began its invasion. more than a week ago. ukraine and the u. s. accused russia deliberately hitting civilian targets during its attacks. meanwhile, civilians all over the country are trying to strengthen their resolve to fight back valley all over ukraine. people are getting ready to fight latitude in live eve. those with combat experience teach those who have never held a gun before. idea for one of the rubric. thoughtful i came here to get some understanding of what to do, how to defend myself, and how to survive if the enemy comes for war of the knocker. and while it still com and live eve devastation elsewhere could give an indication of what could come . this is what the outskirts of keith look like with russian forces advancing in the east and south president vladimir putin claimed that his so called special military operation is going to plan what is his gifts,

a levy and russian soldiers and officers are acting bravely like true heroes issue, our troops fight with persistence, and full understanding that the cause is right all. and when you minute produce, we will do all in the south. russian troops and that tanks have taken control of the key black sea port of how sun. they are also pressuring the port city of merrier poll. there is no water or electricity and the depths of winter to the east, ukraine's 2nd largest city. how he, if is still standing, despite russia's advances. but heavy bombardment has left buildings and ruins and dozens of civilian deaths. and shall noth nothing if we full go to forbid hollywood hill. next will be luck via home. in lithuania, estonia, georgia, moldova, poland, value, and then they will go to the berlin wall. voice is doc boarded will near the door,

berlin's quiz to me. a 2nd round of talks between russian and ukrainian negotiators has met with some progress as the 2 sides agree to establish humanitarian corridors in some areas for those resident. yes ma'am, i could not get the escape. any such corridors could provide some desperately needed respite. i'm joined out by our correspondent mathias bellinger. he's in the me in western ukraine. our 1st of all a t, as there was a fire at the ukrainian, at ukraine's biggest nuclear power plant and was struck by russian shelling. it's now under russian control. how much of a concern is that for people in ukraine? well, to be sure to be clear there if country the plant is not under russian control, but the territory is that the plant is of course run by engineers and that these are the engineers that have been working there for some day. there we have not heard any information of soldiers taking over the planned and hopefully they will

never do. um, but this is of course a big concern. the fighting around a nuclear power plant is of course, a very dangerous thing under the ukrainian government has warned of consequences that might be worse than chin or bill. the plant is bigger than the chin or bill one. um, we have just heard an expert on the security of these plans. they are of course more secure that they do. they wouldn't be said to lie by, by a tank. but we've, he seen a fire, they're not in the react to block or not in the control center, but in some other facility. but still like this is a very dangerous situation. people in the area have been aware of this for some time. they have secured or they have tried to secure this power plant just sitting there, blocking the roads, or they have moved vehicles as barricades there. and they have tried to protected with their bodies. they have not been able to freshen forces, have attacked this area. and this is

a now what we're seeing on and so concerns are high and the, but the plant is still under control of the engineers as we understand. okay, well that sir, that a comforting thought are the there are multiple flash points around ukraine, multiple cities that are under fire right now are, what can you tell us this morning, mathias, about where things stand in this war. there's great concern that the deer of the russian army might move further on keep trying to lay siege on the city . that's one of the spots that the ukrainian forces are very worried about a lot at the moment and are aware we might see something. however, the attack on key has stored for the past few days. ukrainian forces have been a slowing down or fighting back russian attackers or are in the outskirts of the city. um, and as far as i understand, we have not seen

a significant movement there, but fighting is intense that the other spot that causes a lot of worries is more. jo paul connections have been lost to the city under siege, and we've seen a message from the mayor of the city saying that most that he addressing his fellow citizens saying that most of them would probably not get this message. because internet electricity and radio signals are down in the city and it's been on the seas for a few days. so imagine what the situation is like with food and with our a humanitarian goods. yesterday mathias, we had russian and ukrainian or we're hearing her sire in there behind you as well . if you need to, to run to shelter, please do that. no, that's the end. that's that here it is. it seems to be the, the end of her. there has been the warning before. i can see people here, some have run to the shelters, but people here have be gotten used to this or to these alarms,

and whoever is on the street, i often did to stays on the street because it's never care whether next shall days . very well, then i'll put another question to you, martinez. very briefly, we heard that the russian and ukrainian nego it is to sit down again yesterday and agreed on humanitarian corridors for the country. how important are they? well i've just mentioned marie upa, which is completely shut off as a desperate need for medication and, and food should be brought into the city. so this would probably the 1st important candidate, but there are 4 other places. hawkgrove also the situation seems to be quite bad for the civilian population who have been under shelling for some time now and a lot of infrastructure and apartments destroyed. so yes, this is important. mathias, thank you very much. that was our correspond mathias bellinger in live.

if you're just joining us, you are watching d w. special coverage of russia's war on ukraine. i'm terry martin. here's a recap of the top news that we have for you. this, our ukranian official se russian forces have seized the critical zap or reach ya nuclear power plant in the southeast of the country, which produces about one quarter of ukraine's electricity. russian troops launched an attack on the facility overnight leading to a fire at the plant. it is europe's largest nuclear plant. ukraine state emergency service says manage to put out the blaze and secure nuclear safety. authority say that radiation levels remain unchanged. and our correspondent is reporting that ukrainian workers as you just heard, remain in control of operations at the plant. the international atomic energy agency says it has activated its full emergency response mode because of the

situation at the plant. they're due to give a statement on the situation at the power plant and in a moment and we'll be bringing that to you live. meanwhile with me here in the studio is our chief political correspondent, melinda crane, who's been following all of these developments? melinda, a nuclear power plant ah, going up in flames. earliest part of it, this is a frightening prospect. it brings back memories of the child. noodle tra noble nuclear disaster. this is a horrifying prospect for many people in europe. indeed, which is why we have heard many statements have outraged from leaders across europe as well as in the united states and elsewhere. just a few facts as we're seeing them being reported from the international atomic energy agency. they say the situation is under control, that the fire broke out in a training facility, not in a reactor in the director general, i probably will be hearing this from him. says that nonetheless, it is obviously

a matter of severe danger. we're or to spread to a reactor. it seems, however, that most of the reactors at the plant have been taken offline. there are 6 so called pressure eyes, water reactors, here that's a different design from chernobyl. viewed as a safer design with concrete containers around the reactors. nonetheless, let's just stop and think of 6 reactors, 5 apparently offline. that means very little power being produced at this plant, which is a whole other situation of concern, of course, because we have many people in ukraine dependent on the power from this plant who clearly now are seeing reduced perhaps no power in their very cold home. so that's another matter of what we've also heard is that the i e, a, as the world's essentially a nuclear power regulator, is in close touch,

not only with ukrainian leaders, but also with the countries nuclear experts and their own nuclear regulator. and this is a power plant of russian design. so presumably, people in the russian command would have known about the design. and hopefully it wouldn't be avoiding attack on the reactors themselves. that's part of what i find so extraordinary is that there would be fighting anywhere near a nuclear power plant. the russians also understand the implications of what would happen if a reactor were struck by one of it saw shells. it's really hard, hard to conceive, of course, the i e, a, they've already issued a statement saying things are under control that radiation levels are not any higher than they would be normally of we're about to hear a press conference with the director general of the i e, a i a addressing

a dressing the world on this issue because there is great concern everywhere what to expect from them. well, i think he certainly will be endeavoring to tell us that the situation is under control, because as you say, this does prompt a lot of anxiety, not least because sure, noble, of course, is also located in ukraine. and by the way, russian force is also entered the zone around 2 noble a few days ago as you will remember. that was also a matter of great concern to the i. e. a because there is still nuclear material there. and it extremely important decommissioning activities going on, so he may speak to that as well. but that is the reason for, as you say, enormous concern in europe. many people remembering the excess radiation that was detected all across the continent after the chernobyl accident. and therefore he will, it be pains to be at pains to talk about how he sees the situation as being under control and the fact that they have put their emergency incident response center

activated it to ensure close contact with the authorities there. so i think we'll, we'll, we can expect to see him emphasizing all of that. and nonetheless, issuing grave warnings to russia as many other leaders have done as well. president zalinski called this a nuclear terror attack and called on european leaders to act. but as we know, we understand that the coverage is about to begin, we're about to hear from the director general of the i. e raphael grossi, so crossover, we're thinking about moving a thank you for the here. so they all night yes. with

a, a given the circumstances to me, credit which i would summarize falls. i punch was that you may possess with nation. all you want to, i can tell you is that we are tell you a 2nd for information firmed information that is coming straight from the ukranian, regular ether or straight from there is a broad z, a nuclear power plant, where we have contacts at the moment and permanently through the night. so and as you have been informed and overnight, a projectiles that hit a building,

if or within the plant site into the site was blunt at this building or i should refit is not part of the reactor is none of the reactors is a training adjacent or construction or facility, still the reactors, it, these costs are localized fire, which was extinguished by the local an earth fire brigade in at the blank of the blunt. so it's important to say that all the safety assistance of the 6 reactors at the plant were not affect it at all. and that there has been no release of radioactive material, no release of reacting material. and importantly,

in this regard is the radiation monitoring systems. so the systems we have to measure the radiation are fully functional m, as well. however, as you can imagine, the, the, the, the operator and the regulator had been telling us that the situation is naturally continues to be extremely dense and challenging. and because of the, of the circumstances of the slant, or reactors units, or must say that of all the units that we have there, there's only one that is operating at around 60 percent of its capacity unit. one was in an outage for, for maintenance, and units, 2 and 3 are, are in a sit in, in safety,

a controlled shut down. and unit 4 is the one that is of still operating at 60 percent and units $5.00 and $6.00 are we're already being held in reserve and yet they are operating normally in low power mode. i must indicate that 2 people have been injured. are these people, according to the information we have, are not operators or the technical people and they are, are part of the security and personnel around the, around the plant. so these are the facts. we continue to be in contact with the, with the operators and are following the situation. of course, a very, very close. ah, let me now address or how we

are addressing this or what are the next steps that we are planning. what is it possible in the circumstances or as you know, because we saw each other a couple of days ago, or we had a special session of the board of governors here. and i at that urban session or of the board. i indicated a bard from the general exhortations and reminders of the importance of the general principles of never attacking air, nuclear facility and other important from sexual elements. i reminded her member states of a number of betty clear points that must

never be compromised. if one east to ensure safety and security i at any nuclear facility, be the reactor or any other facility and, and, and the 1st the 1st one of this was the physical integrity the physical integrity of the facilities. whether these are reactor, as i said, a fuel bond at radioactive waste storage everything. the 2nd point that i mentioned to the board was a, did all safety and security systems at these places must be maintain and operational. the 3rd point i indicated was the staff needed to be able to fulfill their activities. normally, the 4th is that there should be at all times at all times are offsite power, electricity, so that the facility is able to continue running. normally,

i also refer to the supply chain that must be, are always available in case they say, need a spare parts or things that are, are perhaps needed for repairs. i also referred as as 6.2 early to the radiation monitoring systems that are also required so that we have an idea of what's going on from the perspective of deep possible presence of fred, you activity. and finally, communication communication, which is so important as you have seen throughout this night. and without it, we would have to not be able to confirm the things that, that we are telling. well, everybody agrees everybody agrees not with without any exception, no country, these agrees that these principles must be maintain. however,

the 1st of this, the physical integrity of the plant has been compromised with what happened in last night. so, um we of course are fortunate that there was no release of radiation and that the integrity of the reactors in themselves was not compromised. but yes, the plant in a wider sense. but it is obvious that when we all agree on these principles, words must mean something and we have to act in consequence. so for us, the i. e, e, e, e, e, e 8th. the is time for action. we need to do something about this as i also referred to you, i believe a ukraine sent

a request for immediate assistance to us. i am so very mind what's, what, what's happening and the risks that we may all incur if this continues without it and enhancement and without a re commitment to this principles. i have indicated to both the russian federation and the ukraine. my availability and disposition to travel to ch are novel as soon as possible so that these 7 crucial pillars are never again compromised. the idea behind this initiative of mine as the director general of the i. e a is to agree on a framework and an a compromise that would commit to snuck

compromise these principles that we or subscribe and agree to. we all know that given the very complicated circumstances on the ground, the logistics for such a trip. my presence in this place are not going to be easy and would not be easy. but at the same time, i believe or they wouldn't be, there wouldn't be impossible. if we are to extend assistance, we have to be there. and the 1st to be there must be the head of the i. e. a i want to make clear one point this initiative of mine has nothing to do with the political aspects of this crisis. this is not my mandate. i am not the security council of the united nations. i am not the 2nd that

the general of the united nations. i am not a self appointed mediator. it has nothing to do with that. i want to be extremely clear about this. what we are talking about here is a framework under the aegis of the i e e, whereby he ukraine, and the forces that are present there in this the conflict us in the context of this military operation of the russian federation can agree to our commitment to not to compromise these principles that i have mentioned. so as i said earlier, the fact i this the request for assistance has been made to us. we are not ignoring it. i am ready to come. i stop here and i take your questions. thank you

so much. thanks. d g grossi, jonathan, tyrone with bloomberg news. um, can you please just clarify who specifically you're in touch with on the russian side? you said you're in touch with the indigo at almon ukraine in the regulator. and can you also please clarify, do we know right now whether the control room itself at that nuclear power plant is in a possession of a russian forces or does the utility continue to have control of the room? and of course i, as i mentioned, i am in touch with russia. and also of course you can ukraine, he's my natural counterpart in this. i should always emphasize because we are talking about you, craig, and they are a counterpart. however, we know, and this is no secret, there's a me abrasion and there are russian forces. there. of course we do have

a number of contacts when it comes to the russian federation at diplomatic level and at technical level. ashwin and so this is the 1st part. the 2nd part is regarding the operation of the you're talking about the control room and things like that are here. i should emphasize that for the time being it is purely ukrainian stuff running the operations there. what are we have in this case? as we speak this morning at quarter to 11? what we have is in show know bill. and in the upper of the we have a control effective control of the site in the hands of russian military forces. i hope the distinction is clear

and the morning albert did dph hammond press agency. just to clarify, you, you said you're talking you what you wanted you. you're proposing a framework m to took basically guarantee that the safety of the nuclear installations from both sides. what does, what does, how does that trip to churn or been contribute to this? do you plan to negotiate inter nobel? i'm not quite sure. we are a, we're going to be sharing some elements with the most the most sites and we are going to a try to agree on that. it's part of the consultations we need to have for that. that's the plan to negotiate the or yeah. okay, and we have just been watching a lie press conference from vienna, the i a e a that the international atomic energy agency are the, the director general of that. raphael grossey has been addressing the press and

explaining what just happened at the nuclear power plant in ukraine. if you're just joining us sods, bring you up to date. there has been a fire reported at the largest nuclear power plant in all of europe. it is in ukraine, is these up a reach show, a power plant. the fire is out and we just heard the director general of the i. e. e. i. e, a briefing us on where things stand right now. our chief political correspondent, melinda crane, is with me here in the studio. ah, melinda, you, you follow that conference? you are very familiar with what goes on at the i a, at the proceedings there. what to do, what did we learn? what we learned that for now the situation is under control at the plant. he said, none of the safety systems had been effected. they have not detected any additional radioactive material being released. and he said that it was a fire in

a training facility at the clamps site, not at a reactor itself. obviously it's a reactor far that can trigger a situation like the channel accident. but he said, nonetheless, this obviously is a very grave situation. a grave danger and then he went on essentially to on he also said that of the 6 reactors at this plant, only one is currently in operation to have been taken offline for safety reasons. and the one that is in operation is operating it only 60 percent capacity. what we can deduce from that is that there is a very severe power shortage because this is one of the big or this is the biggest reactor in ukraine. but beyond that, he then essentially under lining why this is a dangerous situation said, you know, we have very clear principles that guarantee safety at nuclear installations. and one of them is respect the physical integrity of the

installation. now he is not a politician, he is not a political leader. he is a regulator. he is a safety official. and he made that very clear. the i a is the you ends official nuclear safety arm if you will. and he said, we all member countries of the i. e, a and russia, by the way, is a very important member country of the organization. it has a very big nuclear industry and it isn't worldwide exporter of nuclear power systems. so he said, all countries sign up, today's principles, all of them agree, and yet the physical integrity of this site has been violated. so that was a direct, a warning, or a direct announcement to russia that this is not ok. and he then went on to make this very unusual offer to travel himself to ukraine,

to meet with russian and with ukrainian authorities to try to talk about how to reinforce safety procedures and systems and consultations in this very, very difficult and also dynamic situation. he did say that he had received a request from the ukrainian side and that the ukrainian side would indeed be his, his director, partner for, for any discussions as the plan itself is located in, in ukraine. i found it quite to quite a dramatic press conference. actually, there's a great deal of interest in this. anyone who has lived in europe over the past 30 years, 40 years at least, has a memory of, of europe, the chernobyl nuclear disaster. in 1986 also in ukraine, released a nuclear cloud. a radiate cloud of radiation that traveled far and wide and severely disrupted and caused serious health concerns. obviously, many,

many people are aware of what, what happened there. so that is very present in people in everyone's mind. at this point i found it interesting. he said is it's in the situation. i quote is extremely tense because of the circumstances. and he obviously is referring to the ongoing war in ukraine. he mentioned how important it was to not just that the physical integrity of the plant, the retain, but also that power supply to the plant external power supply. so that could keep operating or remain safe was very, very important. and i talked about, sorry, just a guaranteeing supply chains spare parts for the plant guaranteeing that staff can continue to work effectively. and he mentioned by the way, when he was asked that it's ukrainian staff were currently operating the control room at the plant that all important control room. but that the site is under ration control essentially. so,

so that illustrates the level of challenge that we're seeing here. and you know, you mentioned cheer noble. we're told that this russian designed, pressurized water reactor system that they have at the shop. is she, a plant is actually inherently safer than noble because it includes concrete containers around the reactors. nonetheless, any fire that gets me anywhere near a nuclear reactor, obviously, is a dangerous issue and has alarmed people across the world. he mentioned also that 2 people were injured at the facility, which i found was important that there was indeed a fire and that the fire we wanted to emphasize was not in the reactor, but at a training facility that the fire was put out by the local services at the, at the nuclear facility, which i think is going to be calming to many people, use his purpose was to reassure the world that there has not been a, another nuclear disaster,

not another chernobyl. but what came through for me was that the risk of things going wrong in his very sober words. a loss of physical integrity of a nuclear power plant is still very much a risk in a war situation. absolutely. and, you know, fog of war, russian officials obviously know that attacking a nuclear installation could lead to terrible harm and damage. yet this training facility was attacked. we don't know whether that was intentional or not. but that illustrates the potential for miscalculation here, for incidence to occur, that perhaps aren't planned, none the less lead to grievous, grievous harm. so indeed, very important message that we just heard. they're willing to thank you very much for now. you have been watching special coverage of the war and ukraine. we were just recapping a press conference given by the i e. a after

a fire was reported at the largest nuclear power plant in europe, which is located in ukraine. that fire has now been put out. do check out our website, w, w dot com, you'll find much more on the war in ukraine. my name is terry martin from me and all of us here in berlin. thanks for watching. ah

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ah, this is the w news live from barely. ukraine says russian forces have seized its largest nuclear power plant. that's after an early morning attack on the side that caused the fire to break out as an adjacent training facility. that fire is now out, and officials have confirmed there is no sign of any radiation leak. nato condense process, russia attack on the nuclear side, the head of a special summit of the ally.