e u leaders have been meeting to boost and map out their collective response to rush us full scale assault of ukraine. ukrainian president vote. amir zalinski repeats his appeals for greater military assistance as his forces work relentlessly to defend their country. and his american counterpart is in europe, joe biden is pledging to help the continent. amid this war, washington will provide 1000000000 us dollars to aid in resettling ukrainian refugees, and biden says the us itself will accept 100000 people who want to live in america . and abby called arson in berlin. and this is the day ah, nathan, in the month of full scale war, total cruelty, the bombing of peace will cds as terrible as it was in syria. russia. so trying to

create some kind of prefix, accusing ukraine, united states that was for preparing to use a chemical biological weapons, we have to continue to isolate hooton's, economy rushes, the economy, to stop the money flowing into the war machine. nato has never, never been more united than it is today. tutors getting exactly opposite what he intended to have as a consequential going to new ukraine. ah, welcome to the program. we begin the day with nato boosting its forces on its eastern flank in europe. in the months since russia has invasion of ukraine, the alliance has already doubled its troops levels in eastern ukraine. eastern europe rather about 40000 troops, are now under its direct command. that force includes battle groups of up to $1500.00 soldiers in estonia, latvia, lithuania, and poland. now need

o wants to station units and for additional countries like hungary, slovakia, romania and bulgaria. secretary general again, stoughton berg said the measures were part of a reset in response to a new reality. today, nathan leaders agreed to reset our turns on the fence for the longer term to face and use security reality. we will have substantially more forces in the eastern part of the dominance at high year readiness, one month since the start of russia invasion of ukraine, natal security environment house for the immensely changed for the long haul. on we are responding with more troops or with the more air assets on more maritime capabilities. it's a new reality. it's so it's a, it's a new normal unable is a responding for a long term nearest president joe biden is in brussels to meet with european allies

in person. he pledged to support those fleeing the fighting in ukraine and announced new sanctions on individuals linked to the russian regime. he also said, vladimir putin has underestimated the resolve and unity of nato. today, marks one months since russia began its carnage in ukraine. the brutal invasion of a crime. poon was banking on nato being split my earlier conversation to the new december and early january was clear to me. he didn't think we could sustain this cohesion. nato has never, never been more united than it is to day prudent is getting exactly the opposite. what he intended to have. as a consequence of going into ukraine, we have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united. thank you. hi, our 1st gas, alexander, still a former prime minister of finland. currently he's a professor at the european university institute. welcome to the day. now your

country is in the european union, but not in nato, after russia invasion of ukraine for the 1st time. most fin say they want to join the alliance. is your country preparing to apply for membership? yeah, i guess the right way to put it is that we're not in nato yet. yes, i predict that finland will file an application for nato membership knox in days, not in weeks, but within a few months. we basically had a reversal of opinion. goals used to be 50 percent in against 20 in fe mark. now it's 62 percent in favor. and 16 against so we have a parliamentary procedure and we are going to join nato at the end of the day. and joining nato is because you and your country fear that hooton's goals of empire extend beyond ukraine. yeah, i mean i've been a minority and advocating finished membership ever since 1995, but now i think our population is rightly so being driven by what i call rational

fear. so the thought is that listen if who tim can slaughter his brothers sisters and cousins in ukraine, why wouldn't he do the same thing with finland? and i think this the sentiment that we have here. so we never want to be alone again, like we were in the wind to war against the soviet union. so therefore, the population is in favor of nato membership. let's talk a little bit about sanctions. we've seen sanctions in finance, in transport, in the world of sports, even energy to but there are continuous calls from inside ukraine, particularly from president, the landscape for an oil and gas embargo. how vital would this step b? i think it would be what vital and obviously we've seen 3 or 4 on coming up to 5 waves of sanctions. the way in which i see it is that russia will be utterly isolated by the end of this. that means political, economic, financial, sport, culture, and energy isolation. so i foresee 1st,

an oil embargo and then it basically step by step movement away from russian gas. i think that's the only right thing to do. do you think it oil embargo would push vladimir putin to ben because that would hamper his economy severely, or is he fully on a legacy to finding mission in ukraine right now? i think it's very much about his legacy. his place in history. you know, he wants to see himself mixed to either the terrible peter the great or starling, and he'll be doing everything in his power to achieve that. and i do think that, you know, going for oil embargoes and gas embargoes, they will probably haste in the process. of isolating him, but will that change his mind? i'm not a 100 percent. sure it will. but i still think that we need to be on the right side of history here. you believe in instilling some kind of embargo, but here in germany, the government is unwilling to block russian energy given its dependence on moscow

. berlin says this war marked a turning point, but it can't turn fast enough for ukraine. what do you hope germany does in this conflict with regard to this oil embargo step by step? i think and you know, i come from a country with 1340 kilometers border. and the way in which we set up our energy portfolio was to make sure that we would not be dependent on russia. that's why we have nuclear. that's why we never did anything like that. and that she been that. so i would say that go for the oil embargo 1st and then because you can get oil from different kinds of places in the world, you know, we're gonna have to pay a higher price and then store to start waiting yourself off of a gas in finland. actually, gas is only for the industry, so we don't do any housing on that. so i guess a bit easier for fin to say that for a german and i must also say that as a professor it's easy to analyze this stuff from the audience. it's bit more difficult when you're in the middle of it and taking those decisions. now,

there are negotiations ongoing between russia and ukraine. right now we continue to here talk though of so called finland a zation of ukraine. that under duress, the smaller neighbor is essentially forced to accept moscow's influence and pledge neutrality. what do you say to people who suggest this as a way out of this war? well, you know, i love germany, but there's one phrase from germany that i don't love. and that's been a decision as it was coined by a german professor. 1966. my answer is, is absolutely no solution to anything. and you have to understand that for us fans finalization is actually a little bit of an insult. it's a sore point in our history. we had to compromise our liberties. we had to compromise our democracy. we had to compromise our security. so it is absolutely no solution. for you cray bossed up your ear country certainly knows about the difficulties of making such a step. and we've heard president zalinski say that he too is not willing to compromise. now diplomacy, let's talk about that is there space here to maneuver on putin's demands are simply

unacceptable to ukraine. but to be honest, i mean, my experience comes from the war in georgia in 2008 and i was sinless, foreign minister at the time. and also chairman of there was c, so i flew into the lease with french foreign minister bel, not questionnaire. and we mustered a ceasefire agreement in 5 days. it's had 6 points, but to be honest, the stakes were much lower of the time. it was easier for president med via dave at the time of prime minister boots in to accept that. i don't think there's room maneuver for a cease fire agreement at the moment. so it's the moment when i deal is not the worst piece hits reality. in other words, war i just don't see where they could actually get closer. and as i said, put, it will destroy ukraine. that's his aim ansolaski. we will fight back at the end of the day. we'll see who is the last man standing. alexander, stop a former prime minister of finland. thank you very much for your time and your

insights. my pleasure. ah. a man fond from russia as invasion of ukraine, many peaceful lives have been shattered by incessant bombing. while homes and infrastructure have been destroyed, ukraine has retaliated with its navy, saying it has sunk. a russian landing ship president vladimir zalinski has appealed to the world to take to the streets and a universal show of defiance. as the situation in ukraine becomes ever bleecker. it breaks my heart, heart, all you greatness and every free person on the planet. that's why i ask you to stand against the war show. you're standing, come from your offices, your homes, your schools, and you know us does come in the name of peace, come with ukrainian symbols, to support your grain to support freedom, to support life. come to your squares, your streets,

make yourselves winnable and hoard. see that people mentor freedom matters. these matters you great matters. joining us now eliot cohen, a defense and secular security expert at the center for strategic and international studies. welcome to the program. as of right now, the western intelligence assessment is brush as advanced, has stalled, but in recent days you've said that's not all that ukraine is actually winning this war. why do you see it that way? so firstly, stipulate the ukranian population is paying a terrible price of one doesn't want to minimize their suffering. also saying that they're winning, not that they've won or even necessarily that they will win. although actually i think in the long run, there's a very good chance of that. it's not just that the russians have stalled, although that we should pause a moment and think about that. the russians had every advantage going into this war . they surrounded ukraine on 3 sides. they're able to amass their forces,

exactly as they wanted. they were able to launch the attacks just when they wanted . we know that they thought they could overrun that country in a few days. and if you look at the map they haven't actually gotten into the heart the country, they've been stopped in most of their offensives. and indeed in a number of areas particularly around give the ukrainians have actually gone on the counter offensive. but it really goes much beyond that. let's start with casualties of the current estimates are that the russians have probably was between 10 and 15000 soldiers killed. to put that in perspective, the russians took about $15000.00 killed during the course of the entire afghan war in addition to that standard rule of thumb in estimating casualties. and this is on the low side for every individual killed, you have several more who were wounded, taken prisoner, or, or, or disappear. so in other words, what that means is, of the total invasion force of something on the order of 200000,

maybe less. they're probably about $30000.00 troops that have been taken off the battlefield. those are very, very heavy casualties. beyond that, we say it's not just private soldiers getting killed. we've lost 6 generals. that's a testimony to a number of things poor signal communications, discipline using opens a cell phones which can be tracked and monitored, but also the fact that senior officers generals and kernels have to go on to the front lines to make things happen. that means that your junior officers can't make things happen on the road. we've seen tremendous logistical failures that notorious 40 mile convoy, which wasn't really a convoy, is more like a traffic jam northwest cave that's result of logistical in competence. and there are plenty of other manifestations of that as well. so i'll give you just one last statistic is quite extraordinary. the ukrainians have captured more russian

tanks and other kinds of vehicles than they have lost. and they've captured more russian hardware that has been destroyed. what that indicates to me is that you have the other side military, that just not very competent, and that's borne out if you, if you look at such videos combat as we see the russians just aren't very good. talk a little bit about further about ukraine now. the armed forces today look vastly different than they did before, 2014, before russia, annex crimea. there's been support from the u. s. the u. k. and canada. in terms of training extensive training. how does the military look today? and that fact is able to hold off the russian attack right now. well, it's a very different military and you know, even in 20142015, they were already getting a lot better. and they were in fact able to deny the russians their maximal objectives in don voss. i think probably the most important thing they've gotten of training is western way of war, which involves

a lot of initiative for junior officers. it means having capable sergeant non commissioned officers, which the russians don't really have. i think it's also fair to say that the ukrainians are actually pretty well equipped. but most important of all, they are utterly motivated. they are fighting for their lives. they're fighting for their freedom, they're fighting for their families. they're fighting on their own turf. whereas the russian soldiers don't know what they're fighting for. in fact, many of them didn't even know that they're going off to war. so between that and the kind of weapons supply that the ukrainians are getting, they've really, in many ways done an extraordinary job of setting back the russians. and in many cases, defeating them. eliot cohen defense and security expert, as he says, thank you very much. you're welcome. ah, if latimer putin believed his invasion of ukraine would result in a quick victory,

he severely miscalculated ukrainians. western intelligence believes 1000 of his soldiers are either being killed or injured every day. and russian forces are facing difficulties. meeting their initial military goals as his forces struggled to regain their momentum, they continue to attack areas with civilians. a warning this next report contains distressing images. an apartment built on defier this is mary paul, the ukrainian city. russia has been targeting since the start of its invasion targets include its citizens, have paid a heavy price. oh, this distraught mother holds her sleeping child. her other child was killed in

russian shelling for those still here, there's little left. you were, we have nothing to eat. it's awful. it's just awful. no light, no heat, nothing with russian forces have attacked schools. yeah. you freed us from vacation and community buildings. when this theater was bombed, it was acting as a shelter for hundreds of people. it's still unclear how many died. bruce junior hospitals to have been targeted this pregnant woman who was film being rescued from mario pulse maternity hospital later, died half an hour after her baby was delivered. still born. since the war began a month ago, there have been more than 60 attacks on ukrainian medical facilities,

including hospitals, according to the world health organization. oh, over the last few weeks, russian air power and artillery have struck at residential areas in other cities like car key. good. who could this monster? oh my god. monster, come up with something like this. to destroy everything. people are starving. there is no water. no wood for heating, and he decided to destroy a city in the 21st century. a beautiful city rose water with water. one month on it seems no one, not even children are safe in putin's wall more. our next guest is cure giles is a russia expert at the foreign policy in tank chatham house. thank you for joining us here. we're seeing the bombs now falling on civilian targets that's been going

on throughout this 4 week war. so far, there is concern putin will resort to tactic similar to what he employed in chechnya. how can that war help us predict what he might do here in ukraine as he's not necessarily making the gains on the battle ground that he had hope for? well concerned that he may resort to doing this is a strange way to put it because that is exactly what has been happening since day 5 of this war. it wasn't right from the beginning because let's not to get in the very early stages. russia thought it good when quickly and easily without even a fight, because they assumed believing their own propaganda that ukraine was a pushover, and it would be a liberation of the ukrainian people from this imaginary fashion, the band that was governance. but instead, as soon as russia realized it was not going to be able to win cleverly and not going to be able to win through military means, they almost immediately pivoted to this default tactic, of causing the maximum civilian suffering possible of engineering. these humanitarian disasters. because that for russia is an effective way of winning was

they seen how effective it is? not only a church now also in syria, because not only does it put pressure on president sky to make concessions, to surrender in order to end the suffering. it also means that other countries around the world will also be piling on that pressure, trying to get semanski to end the war in order to preserve life, so that life can go on. when we talk about a potential offer and for proven this is a big discussion here in europe. what can europe, p and allies do to push him to, you know, exit ukraine? is there anything that you see happening here? that would push vladimir putin to turn his troops around. or is he going to continue this way? well, the key question is, what exactly like the medical and thinks is happening? and again, why fi believe his own propaganda before moving the troops in? does he now have reliable sources of information on what the real situation on the ground is? he must be aware that the war has not been one in 48,

but in terms of the strength of ukrainian resistance and the upholding casualties that the russian troops themselves appear to be taking. one not making for progress is whether that information is actually getting through to president clinton. so he has a real appreciation of the situation on the ground that will determine what he thinks his achievable war. and now some of those items, of course, have already fallen away. you know, don't get here. talk about the, the imaginary d knots, if a cation of ukraine, the country with a jewish president. but other ones looking for territorial control, looking for the demilitarization of ukraine, a probably still perfectly reasonable russian aims. and something that president putin could claim he has achieved, even if russia pulls out its troops now. so there are 2 different aspects it, there's the reality on the ground, and there's what president puts in can actually sell to is domestic population as a success in this war. now, president lansky has repeatedly said that this war will not end with ukraine. do you think pollutants aspirations lie beyond ukraine?

that though, you know, you created the crown jewel of the russian empire in his mind, there is more territory that he rightfully sees as belonging to russia. well, that's exactly right. this is not the war. it is a war, it is the 1st war in russia's program of request and president put on is laid out very clearly what he wants to recall. he's talking about the decisions of a 100 years ago when the russian empire was dissolved as being catastrophic mistakes and other russian decision makers as well have come up with this idea that is the russian empire that needs to be restored. and that of course, includes not just ukraine, not just billers, but also full members of the nato in the western community of nations. that's estonia, lapierre, lithuania, poland fund. so yes, this is just the 1st phase in russia's was a recall request. is there anyone in our circle that's providing him with the information of perhaps with actually happening on the ground? we clearly understand that this was not the case before this invasion. but do you

think that anyone within his inner circle again, could sort of change his mind, or is he the one making all the decisions and he doesn't want to hear it. we have no way of knowing that anybody that says confidently that they do know exactly who is whispering in it, is either making it up or is disclosing classified information that they never should. we simply cannot tell. it's a black box. what exactly is feeding into put in decision making? we know is that it is producing the wrong results. talk a little bit about the support within russia for this war, we know about the propaganda. we know that some independence stations, television stations have shut down, that newspapers are not able to even call this a war. what kind of support is there inside russia for this war? that too, is hard to tell because russia has taken steps not only to isolate its own population from news and information from the outside world, but also made it very hard to figure out exactly what russian people think after all, surveys,

opinion conducted from outside the country. and now illegal precisely, so that we cannot tell that kind of information. now anybody that's been inculcated with a decade plus of russian war propaganda through state television. you could forgive them for actually believing everything that they're being told about this being a crusade to liberate ukrainians from neo nazis. but the young people who are accessing information from outside the country may have a different view. but even so, it may not make any difference. russia has also prepared itself for crushing popular descent. the repression has been getting tightened. not just since the war began, but over a period of several years in russia is fully proved that with the national guard, internal security forces to inflict mass casualties on protests on the streets and russia itself. here, giles, a senior consulting fellow of the russia and eurasia program and chatham house. thank you very much. thank you. that was the day as ever, the conversation continues online. you'll find us on twitter. i dw news. i'm

adequate dawson on behalf of both of our producers, andrew shale, and jared read. thanks for being with us. bye for now. with ah, with

is the end of the pandemic in site. we show what it could look like will return to normal and we visit those who are finding it difficult with success in our weekly coping 19 especially over 90 special next on d w into the conflict zone with tim sebastian, the ukranian,

4th of murder. you fall as withstood, rushes relentless onslaught that 50 years old or destroyed. this are russia brands to strangle other cities across ukraine? my guess is week is mark here. i'm move kit ski advisor to become a defense. how long can this all go on complete with a 60 minute dw? ah, hello guys, this is the 77 percent. the platform for africa. you to be beat issues and share ideas you know, or this channel we are not afraid to detach and delicate the tub because population

is growing. and young people clearly have the solution. the future belongs to you. the 77 percent every weekend on d. w. ah, the corolla virus pandemic has taken a massive psychological toll on people worldwide, from recovering from serious infections to experiencing deaths and once family or circle of friends or even job loss and isolation. people are coping at least in part, in very different ways. on today's program we'll see how volunteers and places like india are looking after corona virus patients.