ah ah ah ah, the state of the news long from berlin, russia claims the 1st stage of its war in ukraine, is over and has been a success and says it will now shift its focus to the eastern don bass region. we look at whether this signals a strategic shift from moscow in the face of stiff, ukrainian resistance. also coming up. visiting ally us president joe biden traveled to poland needs, with american nato,

a troop station near the border with ukraine. he's coming off a trip to brussel where he feels an energy deal with the you and running the race of her life, a ukrainian athlete wins the jerusalem marathon after fleeing the war. ah, i'm not really sure welcome to the program. after a month of fighting that has left thousands dead and sent millions on the run, the war in ukraine might be entering a new phase. ukraine, along with the west, believes russian president vladimir putin aim to overthrow the government and keep in a lightning offensive. but he has failed to achieve that goal. the russian army claims it will now focus on gaining control of ukraine's eastern don bass region. president followed him as

a lensky says he won't give up ukrainian territory for the sake of peace. russia says the 1st phase of its war in ukraine is over. it's military leaders claim the invasion has been a success so far. and its troops will now concentrate on winning full control of the east and don beth's region, fillum of them on the whole. the main objectives of the 1st stage of the operation have generally been accomplished. the combat potential of the armed forces of ukraine has been considerably reduced, which makes it possible to focus on the main efforts to achieve the main goal of the liberation of don bus. at the beginning of russia's invasion, president vladimir putin outlined 2 main objectives, to demilitarize and d, knots of fi, ukraine, western and ukrainian intelligence said the real aim was to topple ukraine's elected government and install a puppet regime in cave. but moscow faced stiff,

a resistance than anticipated. so russia has relied on artillery and airstrikes bombarding cities and urban areas from afar. in the north, east, ukraine, 2nd largest city ha, keith still stands. but a month of constant shelling has left many buildings destroyed. and in dawn bus, the besieged port of mario pole has endured the worst of rushes bombardment. those that have managed to escape tell of a city in ruins. it's impossible during it. there are no roads, hospitals, shops or factories any mold. people have no money for linear. maria poll almost doesn't exist anymore. that old, that is left of it is a name on the matter of a few houses and our memories. why me, luca, as russia says it's re focusing on don bus. it is uncertain what this new phase of the conflict will look like. president zalinski asserted that heavy russian losses

have forced the kremlin to reassess its goals and take place negotiations more seriously. got with putin's original objective, seemingly thwarted, western leaders also feel he may resort to more extreme measures, including the use of chemical weapons to meet rail poets as a political analyst. focusing on geo politics and cyber security. he has been one of the key international commentators on this war and joins me now from washington . welcome, mr. all pear, which. what do you make of the announcements made to day by the russian ministry of defense where there's no question that they're realizing now the plan a has failed planning to take over ukraine and saw papa regime and they're now moving on to plan be the only goals that they can achieve, which is to try to take the rest of the don boss, declare victory declared the knots of fide from the zone battalion that they claim are neo nazis and try to win win this war with some,

some level of victory in terms of taking some level territory so they are selling this as the success. fulton is not openly admitting that his plan aid didn't work out. is he now and he's not going to do that. however, strategically, this is a huge loss for him because he's incurred massive economic pain. the russian economy is going to be in tatters. and for what, for, for taking some tom territory and don, boss, most of the russian people don't care about don boss. and what does this mean for places in southern ukraine like mario paul and her son? well, i think those places they're going to try to keep, and this is one reason why i think that peace settlement is not in the cards. and we're going to have a semi frozen conflict, potentially for months, if not years in the ukraine. because once they took those, those places particular mary opa, which they're going to give to the d n. r republic. which where it was traditionally within the traditional d,

in our territory, and pre pre 2014, they're going to keep that hair san possibly as well, perhaps when alex said to crimea. so it's going to be impossible for zalinski to accept that. of course, if you're talking about a frozen conflict coming our way, what did that look like? well, i said semi frozen because i think there's still going to be her still. it is. you're not going to necessarily see major offensive actions like what we've seen over last month. but you'll see shalon periodically. you will see potentially artillery strikes and air air assaults from both sides, trying to change, change things on the ground. in fact, very much like what we've been seeing the last 8 years and don boss, now on a much larger scale your is saying that there are indications that wants to declare victory by may 9th, a very significant date, of course, for the russian people considering the russian military performance in the past month. is that a plausible goal?

it's possible if they constrain their objectives to the dunbar region. so what they're trying to do, i think before may, 9th is to complete their take over variable. they are very close. now they've leveled much of the city, of course, and then they can try to move the forces that they have in the south for maria pull side, and from the north and the pencil maneuvered to try to circle about $50000.00 or so ukrainian troops that are of still remain in the don boss area, if they manage to do that and it's a big f, they can of course, declare victory. now the strength of the ukrainian resistance has astonished the world just a day we heard of ukrainian troops pushing the russians back in some places. again, do you see a possibility of ukraine being able to put a stop to boot and taking the don bass on the south of ukraine if it's possible and the way the russians out performed, i think,

was astonished many their planning has been incompetent. their training logistics have been horrendous, so it's quite possible that they're not going to be able to complete the circle month of the grant forcing don, boss, security analyst, and me trail. perfect. thank you so much for your time. thank you. b, u has signed a deal with the us to help secure more natural gas and wean itself off russian importance. it is one of many steps now being taken in the you to cut economic ties with moscow. but experts believe it'll take years to build an energy infrastructure that doesn't rely on russian energy supplies. 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 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, e u 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 u. s. won't be enough to plug the gaff. i know,

i know that lemay russian gas will have cost for europe, but it's not only the right thing to do from a moral standpoint. it's going to put us on a much stronger strategic footage. what isn't clear from the statement is how much more expensive the gas coming from the u. s. will be for europe, or how shipping ports, which are already nearly at capacity for importing gas, will be expanded. liquefied natural gas doesn't just flow through pipelines like russian 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 import terminal, which will take that liquid gas turn it back into gaseous gas. and then it goes into the domestic pipeline infrastructure and is used exactly the same way that the russian would be. but there are all those steps. following the agreement with the u . s. u lead is continued the summit and hit a major friction point over where the government should not be allowed to intervene

in the markets to come energy prices, which are soaring for their citizens. while just the hours after agreeing on that new energy deal with the u. u. s. president joe biden traveled to poland. he's now in the capital warsaw after spending time near the border with ukraine. there he met with polish president on j duda, southeastern city of joshua, is where the u. s. military service alongside polish troops, as part of nato. and if we find, we'll hold more talks with student this weekend on the west, military, humanitarian and economic response to russia's war on ukraine. we shoot your breast . 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 tonight or opposition or effort to commit to devastation occurring in the legal definition of well i was u. s. presidential bind, speaking on a visit to poland earlier today, a ukranian runner who fled her country last month to day one, the jerusalem marathon valentina veronica left ukraine with her 11 year old daughter while her husband was also her coach. had to stay behind. she told d w that fans back home had urged her to run for peace. just a few weeks ago, valentine of the red sky was fleeing 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 kept a lot of for message from her ukraine. the key it's, you know, from your grand osler's, from a lot of, from a lot of people from, again, for you know, as a research this and a very nice i speak here about 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 her 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 rather the name is frederick, and i am running next year when i have you guys my husband here. greg with robert. it is a medal that means so much after a terrible mom for her family. she's yet another ukrainian sports star do. an incredible thing in the face of adversity. are watching the w news. here's a recap of our main story to day rush as 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 it's effort. an eastern ukraine is all for me for now, but do stay with us because after the break, rob watts will have the latest from the business world for you. i'll have more headlines for you at the top of the hour from me and the entire team here and for 11. thank you so much for your company with her. 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 reliance of the what's your story. ready ready he wasn't, i wasn't women,

especially victims of violence and i love to take part in.