ah, ah ah, this is dw news lying from berlin, russia claims the 1st stage of its war in ukraine is over and has been a success, as, as it will now shift its focus to the eastern don bass region. we look at whether a busy signal so strategic shift from moscow in the face of stiff, ukrainian resistance. also coming up, the european union strikes a deal to reduce its dependence on brush and gas, but increased imports from the u. s. won't break the use reliance on brush and supply

ah, i'm not really sure welcome to the program. after a month of fighting that has left 1000 instead and sent millions on the run, the war in ukraine might be entering a new phase cave and its allies believe russian president vladimir putin aimed to overthrow the ukrainian government in a lightning offensive. but he has failed to achieve that goal. the russian army claims that it will now focus on gaining control of ukraine's eastern don bass region. but president will, would amuse the 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. its military leaders claim the invasion has been a success so far. and its troops will now concentrate on winning full control of

the eastern dunbar 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 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. nathan crawford, during him 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 matter of 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. 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 me. trail poets is

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 they're realizing now the plan a has failed planet 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 our 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 has incurred massive economic pain. the russian

economy is going to be in tatters. and for what for, for taking some time territory. and don, boss, most of the russian people don't care about dom 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 shell in 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 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 dunbar region. so what they're trying to do, i think before may, 9th is to complete their takeover of 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 maria 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 in 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, to put a stop to boot 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 in circle month of the grant forsin don, boss, security analyst, and me trail. perfect. thank you so much for your time. thank you. let's now

take a look at some other developments in relation to the war in ukraine. french president minute mccaul has proposed an international mission to evacuate people from my real pull the ukrainian city, devastated by russian attacks macro said he was working on a humanitarian operation in conjunction with turkey and greece. and he would soon call russian, president putin, to work out the details. you as president joe biden has visited u. s. troops in poland, and thank them for their service. there are now some 100000 american soldiers stationed in europe since the recent nato reinforcements. ivan hailed the alliances deployments as part of a struggle for democracy against autocracy. and more than 130 refugees from ukraine have arrived in germany from mold over. 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

a deal with the influx. refugees from ukraine have also been crossing into neighboring countries ever since russia invaded more than half a 1000000 people have fled to romania. the 2nd most popular destination after poland many arrived with harrowing tales of their escape from the war. it's just a short ride to safety, but for many here it comes after a long and perilous journey. this family reunited at the docks. some came by ferry, others over land, leaving behind a home caught in some of the fiercest fighting so far. we could either, lo, comical, alive. the situation is very bad. randasia sir, it is being shelled from every direction. almost people who are able to flee are fleeing. it is hard. i want to go home,

or i want to go home very much. ukraine's short border with romania runs along the danube river. fairies land at the town of a sacha with only a few 1000 inhabitants. it is become yet another transit point as refugees flow out of ukraine. many of the new arrivals are fleeing southern ukraine, where the russians have been attacking cities like mc alive, near the black sea coast, and moving towards the major port city of odessa life way through the us. i could have never believed in such things before. we do that honestly, this is a shock. well, you know, we could have never believed that the sky would have been so dangerous that we'd be afraid of airplanes and other things calmly. i didn't expect any of this yet. bear with me up and you are every day there's death, there's destruction of your them. so to be there is very scary,

especially with small children. that's why we left a week in brooklyn. you more. we 1st went to odessa. neither did there for one night. but there are air raid sirens every day. destruction shots fired the whole package with the red cross has set up tents to welcome the ukrainians. but these tense and this town are just another transit point for those arriving. their journey is far from over. meanwhile, the european union has signed a deal with the us to help secure more natural gas and wean itself off russian imports. it is one of many steps now being taken in the a you to cuts, 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, some lender gift on time, and that 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 kind of 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 a capacity for importing gulf 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 liquefy 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 gashes, 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 market to cap energy prices, which is soaring for their citizens. to w correspondence i'm and young, send us his assessment of the deal between the e u and the u. s. let's have a listen. well, this is all part of a, a shift away from dependence on russian energy sources. we've seen the german economy minister about how back going to the gulf to assign deals with countries, their own energy supply. and he's also saying, by the way, that writ, reliance on russian coal will come down by half in the next few weeks. and he expects a reliance on russian energy of russian oil, excuse me, from germany at 2

b virtually ended by the middle of 2024. as he seeing all these kind of positive signals. and people say we can do without russian, russian, oil and gas. when we need to that's all for me for now. up next as well, stories the week and report. thank you so much for your company. i a man with the memories of a woman. oh, only from syria is born in a female body. forced into marriage. great escape.