ah, ah, ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin, russia signals, and may shift its war aims in ukraine, as senior russian military officials says the 1st stage of its campaign is complete and that moscow would now focus on eastern ukraine. this comes as ukrainian forces recapture territory near keith, also coming up biden and poland. the u. s. president visits the nato ally and meets with american troops station near the border with ukraine. he's coming off a trip to brussels for he announced an energy deal with the you

ah, i require dawson welcome to the program. as russia says it's completed its 1st phase of this war. the ukrainian military is pushing moscow's troops back and retaking territory around the capital. the united kingdom says ukraine has reclaimed several towns near keith. still more civilian doubts have been confirmed . local officials and mary, or ball say 300 people died in the russian attack on a theater last week. the russian word for children appeared outside the theatre in hopes of preventing an attack on the structure. the city has been among the hardest hit so far. matter you fall in eastern ukraine has come to symbolize the devastation russian bombardment has wrought. most of the city has seen terrible destruction. people trapped here struggle to find food or water. ukrainian

officials now believe some 300 people could have died in last week. strike on a theater. their hundreds had been seeking shelter in the building when it was leveled by a russian bomb. here and michel live near the black sea. a rocket hit tatiana as building her neighbors were killed. her home is now wrecked, but she is staying put what you're able to think. we will stay in the co live and will be here until the end of board. i will go back to work. yes, just my company is still operating nuclear. we've done that a lot in the do, i hope to carry on working more. i would just not prove to you. but while russia keeps bombing from afar, its advance into ukraine's main cities has mostly stalled. ukrainian forces are pushing back on the front line and need

a pin just outside the capital. keep ukrainian forces have repelled the russians with a series of counter attacks. as this commander explains, he full with the russians. don't have the combat power. my men are hitting their supplies, and in cubicle armed citizens would be shooting from every window and door, which i heard men's am. ukraine's defences are holding loudly me to put in hopes of a lightening, quick war, dashed. but this battle comes at a high price, especially for human lives. it's hard to verify how many people have been killed in this war. in a crematorium, in keys, dozens of earns lay unclaimed. the relatives of the dead have fled and they had to leave their loved ones, remains behind. joining us now dw correspondent, knick connelly who's in the ukrainian capital,

nick more. what more can you tell us about the situation in key right now? we have spent most today in doors, that's just been an alerts bombing bombing alerts bombing rate a large optimum in re looked. and this time actually, the bang seemed to be a lot closer. louder they had been in previous weeks. that doesn't mean the russians are closer quite the opposite, but they are seemingly upping this tactic of trying to shoot at even the center of kia from a fall from those positions where they still are about 25 kilometers away from the center of the city locked that noise and also ukrainian empty across systems trying to shoot down missiles or other projectiles heading all way. but it certainly was very jarring. state was actually beautiful day. and in recent days, happiness has people who are kind of getting used to war. after a month, they would somehow adapting to it the people who decided states somehow finding a way to live with it and were coming out of the streets in great numbers and we've seen before. and then suddenly these bangs felt very present,

very close. suddenly bring that reality back back to people's minds. russia now says the 1st phase of this war is mostly complete. is there an indication that they're gonna change tactics here? what do you think? well, this sounds a lot like brave talk for most to try and distract from russia's military pena's in this, if you remember at the beginning this campaign, they were pretty bombastic and their aims, talking about the not finding you cry, whatever that means about basically returning ukraine to rushes serve influences basically doing away with cranes sovereignty as a nation. that was essentially what they were saying. but in the future and again and again, basically talking about ukraine as a fake nation, a nation that being tripped up by western power trying to weaken russia. now they're dialing down on the demand dialing down on the aims to then be able to potentially explain to that population why less has been achieved. but i think people don't really believe it was from what they are come in. this is just

tactical. this is a way to maybe try and distract maybe to prevent further west and sanctions to buy some time before those russian troops here. and you can be supplied with more supplies and to carry on this war. there isn't any sensitive from the inside. the russians are generally willing to cut their losses in any meaningful way. let's look at the military situation on the ground for a moment. western intelligence says, and even famous for a few days now that the russian offensive appears to have stalled with little gains towards the capital, and the ukrainian forces are now retaking some areas around that capital. this war has not been going according to prudence plans for some time. well, definitely, and i think there was also some re hubris on the russian side. the belief that that ukraine would collapse under pressure from russia. that the leadership that you democratic president lensky, would just run and lead on, defended that ukraine's all me wouldn't be able to fight or would fight as badly. and as in fact, back in 2014, i think that was a failure to understand this country has changed

a lot since then. and that ukraine's all me is different. and there are hundreds of thousands of people that weren't on bath and who have combat experience. that's something that basically no other country in europe has that kind of pool of people . and there's even reports of russia stock putting parade uniform within found in a, in a garage outside kid. because they were expecting to hold victory parade and kill within days. and now talk that some of these people who were meant to be that parade military orchestra members were now having to fight when actually they thought they were coming to grange to celebrate the russians victory of the frank w correspondent, and economy. thank you. the us has signed a deal with the european union to help secure more natural gas for the continent. the agreement is aimed at curbing europe's dependence on moscow. but cutting off russian imports immediately is proving difficult for some you countries. pipelines still bringing rushing gas into the e. u. around 40 percent of europe's gas consumption comes from russia,

which is why e. u. leaders haven't been able to agree a ban on imports as a way of trying to force moscow to end the war in ukraine. but what they did do the summit in brussels, attended by president biden, is a great deal to buy more gas from the u. s. last year. and i think for vending machines, we need to work toward developing infrastructure, which will allow us a greater capacity to move gas where we needed to see them both of often. that means we have taken a conscious decision to better connect national networks, exidine, some lender get on to an under the plan is to increase imports from america by an additional 15000000000 cubic meters this year with a name to increasing that to $50000000000.00 per year in the coming years, currently, you imports from america stand at 22000000000 cubic meters annually. the use annual dependence on russia is a 150000000000 cubic meters, though. so the increases from the us, we're be enough to plug the gaff. i know,

i know that eliminating russian gas will have cost for europe, but it's not only the right thing to do from a moral standpoint. is going to put us on a much stronger strategic footy. what isn't clear from the statement? it's how much more expensive the gas coming from the u. s. will be for europe, or how shipping ports, which already nearly a capacity for importing gas will be expanded. liquified natural gas doesn't just flow through pipelines. like rushing gas does. there's the well, in america, you take a bucket of a gas out, liquify, it put it on a ship, send it across the atlantic, it goes into an important terminal, which will take that liquid gas turn it back into, gosh, it gas. and then it goes into the domestic pipeline infrastructure, and they did it exactly the same way that the russian would be. but there are all those following the agreement with the u. s. e. lead is continued the summit and

hit a major friction point over where the government should not be allowed to intervene in the market to cut energy prices, which is soaring for their citizens. now, just hours after agreeing on that new energy deal with the u. s. president joe biden travel to poland is now in the capital warsaw after spending time. here the border with ukraine. there he met with polish president on j duda. the south eastern city of joshua is where the u. s. military serves alongside polish troops as part of nato biden. we'll have more talk to do that this weekend on the military, humanitarian and economic response to russia's war on you crank. and speaking at a briefing with president duda and military officials, biden was clear about what he thinks is the way forward. the single most important thing that we can do is keep

democracy. united in our opposition effort to devastation occur in quite frankly. ready with well w barbara hazel explains what signal the american president is hoping to send it with his visit to europe. the message is absolutely clear, he has particularly by traveling to the border region, was ukraine as sent the message to president putin. and that is, the nato alliance is ready to defend every foot off their territory. and that was something that the major leaders retreated when they met in brussels on thursday. and that is the main message of president biden. hughes said around 10000 us soldiers are stationed in poland and this town know you're sure that he

visited today has about 2700 of them. and he sat down with them to have a slice of pizza as american presidents tend to do when they visit their troops. and he said, we are very grateful for your service. and it is very important to defend the borders here and defend the nato alliance. and to show moscow that they can't advance any further. so that is the strategic aim really off this visit here. did always barbara vessel reporting from warsaw there ukrainian runner who flat her country last month, one marathon in jerusalem today. valentine over at scar, left ukraine with her 11 year old daughter, while her husband was also her coach, stayed behind. she told the w that fans back home had urged her to run for peace. just a few weeks ago, valentina baretski was playing for her life. now the ukrainian marathon runner is

trying to promote peace around the world, starting with the jerusalem marathon before the race, she told d w about the support she still has back home. and i have a lot of for message from her grand kids. he and oh, from ukraine. osler's from a lot of, from a lot of people from you can or you know, as a visitor beast and a very nice i last stick here about this. it was unusually wet and cold for the start of the jerusalem race. but after the journey she has been on, she just felt relieved to be running again. the race was a mixed event, so she cleverly used male runners as pace setters in a bid to be the 1st woman to cross the line. she achieved her goal and celebrated with the israeli and ukrainian flags. she hopes to soon be reunited with her husband, who is also a coach,

but has remained in ukraine after the russian invasion. she vowed to do even better in the race next year. with her did you go the rest of the day the rather than spend and i'm from me next year when a real guy is my husband here, craig and i kind of end user a. it is a medal that means so much after a terrible mom, her family, she's yet another ukrainian sport start doing incredible things. in the face of adversity. you're watching the w news. here's a recap of our main story. russia is, military, has signaled it may be reducing its military ambitions in ukraine. a senior russian army officer says the 1st stage of its military campaign in ukraine has been largely completed. and that moscow would increasingly focus its efforts in eastern

ukraine. you're watching the darwin news. rob was my calling is up next to your business update. i'm abby. quote awesome for all of us here in berlin, our teams around the world. thank you for being with us with awe every day for us and for our planet. global ideas is on its way to bring you more conservation. how do we make cities greener? how can we protect animals and their habitats? what to do with all our waste? we can make a difference by choosing reforestation over d for.