ah, ah ah, does it say that we news lying from berlin? russia claims the 1st stage of its war in ukraine is over and has been a success. it says it will now shift its focus to the eastern don bass region. we look at whether a best signals, a strategic shift from moscow in the face of stiff, ukrainian resistance. also coming up big european union strikes a deal to reduce its dependence on russian gas, but increased importance from the us won't break the use reliance on russian supply

and running the wraith of her life. a ukrainian athlete when the jerusalem marathon after fleeing war told torn home country. ah, uncle foolish welcome to the program. after a month of fighting that has left thousands dead and millions on the run, the war in ukraine might be entering a new phase here and its allies. believe russian president vladimir putin aim to overthrow the ukrainian government and enlightening offensive. but he has failed to achieve that goal. the russian army claims it'll now focus on gaining control of ukraine's eastern don bass region. but president volota mears 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 kept his initial objectives vague. weston and ukrainian intelligence said the amos to topple ukraine's elected government and install a puppet regime in cave. but moscow has faced stiffer 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 yet can fulfil 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 . did that all that is left of it is a name on the malice, a few houses. yes. 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. but with putin's original objective, seemingly thwarted, western leaders also fear he may resort to more extreme measures, including the use of chemical weapons to meet real 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? well, there's no question that there we eliza. now the plan a has failed plan a 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 the claim are neo nazis and try to win win this war with some, some level of victory in terms of taking some level of territory. so they are

selling this as the success. fulton is not openly admitting that his plan a 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 them, boss. and what does this mean for places in southern ukraine? lake mario pal 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 mario paul, which they're going to give to the d n. r republic. which, where it was traditionally within the, the traditional d n. 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 sheylan 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, and don boss now on a much larger scale. your is saying that there are indications that putin 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 don boss region. so what

they're trying to do, i think before may, 9th is to complete their take over my opal. 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 from morale pull side. and from the north and pennsburg maneuvered to try to circle about $50000.00 or so ukrainian troops that are of still remain the dunbar area. if they manage to do that. and it's a big f, they can of course, declare victory. now the strengths of the ukrainian resistance has astonished the world just today 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 food and taking the don bass on the south of ukraine? it's possible and the way the russians out performed, i think, was astonished many their planning has been incompetent. their training and

logistics have been horrendous, so it's quite possible that they're not going to be able to complete the encirclement of the grain. forsin don, boss, security analysts, dimitri. oh, perfect. thank you so much for your time. thank you. so take a look at some other developments related to the war in ukraine. french president minute, my call has proposed an international mission to evacuate people from my real poll, the ukrainian city, devastated by russian attacks. michael said he was working on a humanitarian operation together with turkey and greece, and he would soon call russian, president putin, to work out the details more than a 130 refugees from ukraine have arrived in germany from moldova. hundreds of thousands of ukrainians have fled to the small former soviet republic, germany plans to air lift 2500 refugees out of moldova to help it deal with the influx. and you,

as president joe biden has visited us troops and poland and thank them for their service. there are now some 100000 us soldiers station to in europe. since recent nato reinforcements arrived by inhaled the alliances deployments as part of a struggle for democracy against autocracy. and the e. u has signed a deal with a u. s. to help secure more natural gas and when itself, off russian imports. it's one of many steps now being taken in the you to cut economic ties with moscow, but experts believe it will take years to build an energy infrastructure that doesn't rely on russian energy supplies. pipelines still bringing russian gas into the e. you around 40 percent of europe's gas consumption comes from russia, which is why you 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 humbling business, 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 gift on turn, 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 won't be enough to plug the gap. 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 is going to put us on a much stronger strategic footing. 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 were already nearly at capacity for importing gas, will be expanded. liquefied natural gas doesn't just flow through pipelines like russian gas does. there is 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 rushing 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 cup energy prices, which is soaring for their citizens. they w correspondence, i mean young send us his assessment of the deal between the e u and the u. s. that was in him. well, this is all part of a, a shift away from dependence on russian energy sources. we've seen the german economy minister of at har back going to the gulf to sign deals with countries there on energy supply. and he's also saying by the way, that the reliance on rushing coal will come down by half in the next few weeks. and he expects a reliance on russian energy of russian. the oil excuse me, from germany at to be virtually ended by the middle of 2024. as he seeing all these kind of positive signals. people say we can do without rushing russian oil and gas when we need to see w political correspondence. i mean,

yes to ukrainian runner now, who fled her country last month and to day one, the jerusalem. marathon valentine never read scott left ukraine with her 11 year old daughter while her husband, whose also her coach, had to stay behind. she told the w that fans back home had urged her to run for feasts. 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 got a lot of from message from my grand kids here now from ukraine. the osler's from a lot of, from a lot of people from, again, for in as a, the service and

a very nice i stick 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 pay 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. what has remained in ukraine after the russian invasion? she bowed to do even better in the race next year. with her did you go the rather the router by the name of fredric and i'm running next year. i will. gov is my husband here, craig records, and usually martha have new records. but then here in the i've robert, it is

a medal that means so much after a terrible mom for her family. she's yet another ukrainian sport start doing incredible things in the face of adversity. incredible, indeed. that's all for me. for now, i'll have more headlines for you at the top of the hour. thanks for your company. ah, ah, what people have to say matters to us on me. that's why we listen to their stories. reporter every weekend on d. w. and what interest the global economy our portfolio.