a double you ah ah, this is dw news lie from berlin. russian forces extend their aerial assault as explosions are reported in more ukrainian cities. the city of ne pro, in central ukraine is formed for the 1st time in this war. troops are also edging closer to the capitol, while hundreds of thousands remain trapped in the port city of mighty. you have the bombardment after days of heavy shelling and broken ceasefire. some residents of air pin northwest of tea at are finally able to flee. dw correspondent mathias

brinninger has the ground and a band on russian gas importance threatened to divide you leader there, meeting this morning and for side for a 2nd day to discuss the blocks response to the war in ukraine. ah, i'm see me so much gonna glad you could join us. russian forces are extending their air strikes on ukrainian cities a day after high level talks between moscow and he has failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough. emergency services in central ukraine, se civilian targets, and nitro, or hit in the 1st aerial bombardment of the city. russia says it destroyed to military airfields in looks, and even offline keeps. and the kremlin has unilaterally announced humanitarian quarters in places including body. opal ha, keith,

sumi and chinese crane says civilians are suffering but agreements to evacuate. people have failed multiple times due to ongoing russian bombardment. ukrainian authorities say that 40000 people have now been evacuated from 5 different ukrainian cities. but they say russian troops continue to break these fires to allow more residents to flee in air pin north northwest of t as people had been fleeing a bit heavy bombardment. as russian forces advance on the capital, now a brief pause in shelling has allowed more residents to escape. our correspondent mathias bellinger is there finally voting a bus to safety? these refugees have just come out of the fighting zone. northwest of keel dowdy has been on the road for hours. we have left everything there and just fled. i don't know whether we will ever be able to come back

to pina. saba north, west of kias has been one of the worsted places in this war. these fires have been agreed and broke in time and again just a few days ago, a family of 4 was killed near this bridge. they were shelled on their way out of the small town. to day it is come so far. the opportunity for many to finally lee this is one of the places that had been fought about for days. people have been sitting there trapped waiting for an opportunity to get out, leaving behind what they could not carry with them. people have been fleeing in a hurry. shelling can start again at any moment. some have been walking for many kilometers before being able to cross over the bridge to reach one of the buses. just the law office of that or if it's difficult and terrifying roads are destroyed

as destroyed military equipment everywhere. dead bodies lie around. we saw this while walking. it's difficult for everybody, including old women. it's very frightening. many here i have no idea where to go. next. this kindergarten was closed after the war began. it's now hosting people who have fled to fighting they do not have some arrive without even wearing slippers. some come without a coat. there are some grandmas went out to fetch water and wave vacuum ages on the water because their life came and the whole retirement homes have been evacuated. the refugees can rest here for a few days. when you call the national could got to speak with everybody from one neighbourhood left. a plane flew over us, then it suddenly turned dropped

a bomb and everything was on fire. volunteers quickly evacuated through insurance, apparently as evacuation of peen and other suburbs goes on. the kindergarten braces for more people to arrive in the coming days. our correspondence nick connelly is in the ukrainian capital and provided this update from kia, the well in those kind of place like you to pain. yes, people are getting out. we were there yesterday seeing people getting across that destroyed bridge and he's been that i'm sure you've seen him. so for people being carried in wheelchairs on stretchers, families with their pets, but very on the way of possessions. just taking what they could grab hurry, but even though they were leaving and they were trying to take advantage of that situation, there was still artillery shooting going on pretty close by. there were plumes to smoke in the sky. you could hear it from different directions. so this is by no means full temporary cease fire that would allow people to leave in peace without

any risk of harm to themselves. we've seen civilians recent days losing their lives . trying to get out here where i am in downtown key about 25 kilometers away from me to pin and some of the worst that fighting things are kind of eerily quiet. we haven't had that many air raid sirens in the last few days that hadn't been direct strikes. that's partly due to the fact that there's better defense here for the center for the government quarter, for the definitely isn't expectation of worth things to come. people, very wary of strange is wary. of all these reports, we're hearing of attempts to kill ukraine's democratically elected present lensky to people keeping a very low prof, profile and streets pretty empty, except for soldiers and generous nick connelly reporting for a stair from ts. now to some other development in the conflict, demonstrators took to the streets of melita, poland, ukraine, to protest the russian invasion, and the presence of russian forces in their town. united nations was warned,

aid is desperately needed in places like milly to pull an appeal to moscow to allow for safe passage. humanitarian quarters have come under attack. during previous agreed upon cease fire. ukrainian president followed. mister lensky has denied moscow's allegation. that key of is preparing a chemical or biological weapons attack. the un security council meeting today to discuss the accusation upon russia's request. the u. s. is warning that moscow is making the allegation, as it prepares to use such weapons in ukraine. the u. s. senate has given a final approval to a package of military and humanitarian aid for ukraine, at least half of the $13600000000.00 measure aimed to help arm and equip ukraine's military to fight the russian invasion. you leaders are meeting in france for a 2nd day of talks on the blocks response to the invasion of ukraine, major topics on the agenda, our defense spending and europe's dependence on russian fossil fuels. after the 1st

day of talks, the block ruled out fast tracking ukrainian membership to the u, but welcomed the idea of the country joining the block. this is what european council president sean michelle had to say, because of the war will do here. we also discussed ukraine's request to join the european union. very clearly crane belongs to the european family. we want to support all efforts to strengthen ties with ukraine. a router of you can turn let's go right to our correspond above that vessel who is covering the summit for us in versailles. hi, barbara, it's good to see you. so we heard there that ukraine belongs to the european family, but you membership is out of reach for now. why is that ukraine is belonging to the european family, maybe like a very distant uncle. critics here say that the shopkeeper mentality of some older more northern member states has prevailed. there was a pitched battle last night between eastern europeans and weston,

a membership member countries because the letter didn't want to foster ukraine. this is too dangerous. we can't admit the country at war. we don't know what will happen. and the sooner is said we need to send them a strong signal off. so derek g, a just show them that, that we're at their side. so they got nothing but a diplomatic formula that doesn't really get them anywhere at the moment and it's just a face saving operation. another big topic that we mentioned on the agenda barbers is weaning off of russian oil and gas. we've seen that a hungary prime minister, victor, or bon has already said that a full ban on russia is out of the question. we know that the pressure on europe to ban oil and gas from russia is increasing. so how divided our member states on this issue? they are pretty much divided on that issue too, because we've also heard all of schultz, the german chancellor say something very similar to the to organ earlier said, no, we're not ready to do that yet. the consequences for the german economy would be

horrible. and so they are talking today about how they can manage to get to europe, but to limit the imports of russian gas by to 3rd, by the end of the year. that of course, is no help to ukraine at the moment or in the coming months. that is just about their own economies. so it's still on the table though, because it seems the mood might change any moment if atrocities and fighting in russia in ukraine gets worse. if russia is starts bombing, even more indiscriminate indiscriminately than it has done so far, they might yet get to the point that they will start cutting off all imports 1st. and then finally get to gas. but we're not there yet. and barbara, one last question, so we're saying that there's not going to be an immediate ban on russian oil and gas. there's not going to be a fast track membership membership rather for ukraine. what measures is the you

a willing to consider at this point? they are ready to give another 500000000 euros for military support. that means the membership can continue to deliver military aid and weapons as much as they still have in their and a barracks in their military cupboards. so sort of and they, they are ready to give and that will be financed by the you. so that is not the point. of course, there will be humanitarian aid as much as is needed. they are ready to try to help all the refugees coming out of ukraine, and that is a big that is going to be a big issue because the already 2 and a half millions are out and more or ukrainian refugees are to come so that you will take care of them, but nothing. there is nothing really on the table to sort of help ukraine in its plight at this time point in time. and it's going to take maybe another week or 2 to probably tighten the screw of sanctions further detail. his bottle of vessel

reporting at the summit in versailles for us. thank you. former german chancellor. gerhard schroeder is in moscow to meet with vladimir putin. schroeder is known to be a close friend of the russian president and is on the board for the state owned energy giant ra snapped a few days ago, chancellor will actually had urged quota to step away from his posts at russian energy companies. the german government says it was not consulted about showed us trip, and it had no knowledge. he was going to moscow so that trip came as something of a surprise to the german government. our chief political correspondent melinda crane, has more. it's quite unprecedented. what we know is mostly unconfirmed. politico 1st broke the story yesterday, reporting that ukraine had reached out to ask the former chancellor to help mediate . and what's important to know is what you mentioned that in fact, gearhart, florida has strong ties to russia and vladimir putin and serves in those

supervisory positions with major russian energy giants. so the ukranian ambassador here in germany had suggested that schroeder might be able to play a mediation role last week, but he's now saying that he didn't initiate this current. this visit at any rate shredder seems to have traveled to istanbul at the beginning of this week. to meet there with the ukrainian politician who is a member of the country's delegation for the peace talks that were held in turkey. and at then the former chancellor reached out to moscow and flew on there with his wife. and we do have one piece of evidence for that part of the story. a photo posted yesterday on instagram bi schroeder's wife. so you should are kim showing herself with the kremlin in the background and prayer in modi khan, that she added to that photo and media reporting that the chancellor held a talks yesterday with the russian president. what that what the results were and

whether there will be more is unclear at this time. now ukrainian athletes have made another appeal for p set the beijing power olympics. several members of ukraine's national paralympic committee observed, emitted a minute of silence calling for an end to the war. despite grappling with rushes, invasion of their homeland, ukrainian team has thrived at the paralympics. they have claimed 6 gold medals, putting them 3rd in the table behind china and canada. today ukraine will have more metal chances. the teams resilience has been applauded by the president of the international paralympic committee. reminder now of our top headline yardi w, the central ukrainian city of nico becomes a target of russian air assaults for the 1st time emergency service to say an apartment block and kindergarten or hip russian troops are also edging closer to the capital here, while hundreds of thousands remain trapped in the courts,

city of mighty, who both amid heavy apartment russia currently owns, owes around $50000000000.00 to lenders in the west. what will happen with all that debt, rob watts has more details coming up next on dw business stative . and so i'm just kinda, i think that's hard and in the end is a me, you are not a lot of to you anymore. we will send you back. are you familiar with this with the smokeless reliance of it? what's your story. ready ready he wasn't, i was women,

especially victims of violence in labs and take part in.