ah, ah, ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin, russia claims the 1st stage of its war in ukraine is over and has been a success to says it'll now shift its focus to the eastern don bass region. we look at whether this signals the strategic shift from moscow in the face of ukrainian resistance. also coming up the european union strike the deal to reduce the dependence on russian gas. but increased imports from the u. s. will not break the . he used reliance on russian supplies

ah, told me all lighting welcome to the program. after a month of fighting that has left thousands, dad and sent millions on the run, the war in ukraine might be entering a new phase cave and its allies. believe that while russian president vladimir putin aimed to overthrow the ukrainian government in enlightening offense, if he's actually fails to achieve that goal, the russian army claims that own l. now focus on gain control of ukraine's east and don bass region. but president volunteers, the lensky says he will not 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 bus region fillum, 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. liberation of don bus. at the beginning of russia's invasion, president vladimir putin kept his initial objectives. vague. western and ukrainian intelligence said the a most 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, and strikes, 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 don

bus, the besieged port of maria pole has endured the worst of rushes bombardment. those that have managed to escape tell of a city in ruins yet and prosper during up. there are no roads, hospitals, shops or factories anymore. people have no money for linear. maria poll almost doesn't exist any more, did it at all that is left of it is a name on the malice, a few houses and our memories, blue sky. as russia says, it's really 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 negotiations more seriously. got with putin's original objective, seemingly thwarted, western leaders also fear, he may resort to more extreme measures, including the use of chemical weapons ukrainian president villa dimmers.

the lensky has addressed representatives of middle eastern countries like cattle and saudi arabia. at the doha forum. he said they must step in as energy supplies to dry up rushes main source of income. this is also a question of abandoning the researcher, russian, oil and gas. you are responsible state and like the state of guitar on reliable and solid of exposure to resolve energy resources and they can bag day contribution for the civilization in europe. they can do botch to restore justice in the future of europe, arrest law way of your efforts. it depends on your efforts. i should ask you to increase the output of energy. yes. to ensure that everyone in russia understands the thought that no country can use energy as a weapon and blackmail blackmailed worth can now speak to ben hodges, a retired u. s. a tenant general and former commander of the u. s. army in europe,

who's joining us from dough. welcome to the w general. now the russian military making this statement, apparently shifting its focus from the key of offensive and now to liberating as it says, don bass, what do you make of that? this is a colossal failure. by the russian federation, armed forces, and of course, they're going to try and dress it up as something else that they've accomplished everything they meant to. but they haven't accomplished anything except demonstrate that their military has suffered from decades of corruption inside the miniature defense. and inside the army, and they've demonstrated that ukrainians have something to fight for where russian soldiers don't. so i would say this clearly is the combination of russia's ability to launch or conduct sustained offensive operations large scale. unfortunately,

they still have the ability to murder innocent ukrainians. what do you expect from the russian forces around kids? now those talk of the long convoy of vehicles approaching the city and all these other forces, what kind of campaign will they be carrying out right now? i think what we're going to see is a, an attempt by the russian forces to harden what they have. so you'll start seeing reports of digging in and fortifications to make it difficult for ukraine to, to push them out. if ukraine is able to launch a counter offensive, and this would be done in my view to to create new facts on the ground for negotiation to create a new sort of frozen conflict. and of course, this is what we cannot afford. we should not allow, allow russia to be rewarded for their attack on ukraine. we,

the west need to be talking about. this is democracy versus autocracy. and so we should be pouring in support from ukraine so that they can in fact, push russian forces back to the pre 24 february line. lots of sources are talking about of the russian suffering massive casualties. you mentioned that the russians have had a failure. there, but we're hearing estimates of between 7 and 15000 troops killed in action. how reliable are these figures? well, i'm always suspicious. so when somebody makes an estimate, i can i have from 7 to 15000. i mean, that's a becker, that's a heck of a range for estimates. i generally tend to stay away from body counts because there's so many reasons why they are seldom accurate unless you actually see the dead soldiers. so i would generally go with the lower estimate,

but then you have to also assume that anywhere from $2.00 to $3.00 times as many have been wounded. that's kind of the standard conversion factor if you will, if you're trying to estimate the damage to the opposing force. so however, many russian soldiers been killed, even though the lowest meant that is a staggering number of casualties in just 4 to 5 weeks of war time. and it will be impossible for the kremlin to hide this from the russian population to where they've tried to. in the past. ukraine is pushing for a no fly zone. no general you have signed a letter back king that but doesn't that open a kind of worms for us to then see direct confrontation between nato and russia? you know, i did send that letter and i would sign it again. even though there is risk exactly as you point out, the direct confrontation that could result of nato aircraft in the sky versus

russian aircraft. but look, how many people will remember, rubber needs. july 1995, where soldiers stayed outside the city under the un mandate. while republic services forces murdered 8000 bosnian men and boys, and it feels a little bit to me like we're not doing enough to help prevent the murder of ukrainian citizens. and so, yes, of course is risk with a, with a no fly zone. but i think there is a way to do it. first of all, we have massive advantages over the russians. if you put together the combined military economy and population of the 30 nations of nato versus russia, i mean, it's a staggering advantage that we have. and so we should, we could do this by communicating to the russians a look. if one russian airplane comes up, it will be destroyed immediately, and then we will go after other things. so communicating this very clearly is a way to do this to allow the evacuation of people out of cities like mario ble.

yes, of course there's risk, but if, even if i was still the commander today, i would absolutely be advocating for this general very briefly. i know it's a difficult one, but how long do you see this conflict continuing and what kind of outcome do you expect? i think it depends on us, the west. if we do not ramp up the support for ukraine, like, like the berlin airlift, i mean that sort of sense of urgency. if we don't do that, then russia is going to be able to sit there and continue to kill ukrainians. they may not take any more territory. in fact, i'm sure they won't take any more territory, but they will continue to destroy ukraine, and that's why we have got to do a lot more. ok, retired lieutenant general ben hodges. many thanks for speaking to us. thanks for the privilege. here's a look at some other developments in the war. french president event a,

my norma cross has proposed an international mission to evacuate people from my real poll, the ukrainian city, devastated by russian attacks across that he was working on a humanitarian operation together with turkey and greece. and he would soon call russian president vladimir 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 lift 2500 refugees out of mold over to help us deal with the influx. yes, president joe biden has visited us troops in poland and thanked them for their service. there now some 100000 us soldiers stationed in europe after recent major reinforcements bite and held the alliances deployments as part of a struggle for democracy against talk rossi. the you assigned to deal with the

us to help secure more natural gas and wean 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 does not 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. was via 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 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 gap. i know, i know the eliminate russian gas will have costs 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 us will be for europe, or how shipping ports, which are ready nearly a capacity for importing gas will be expanded. liquefied 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 and import terminal, which will take that liquid gas turn it back into. gosh, it gas. and then it goes into the domestic pipeline infrastructure and then do exactly the same way that the russian would be. but there are all those 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 cap energy prices, which is soaring for that citizens. you're watching d. w as he has a recap of our main story. rushes military has signaled if 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. that must go with increasingly focus its efforts in east and ukraine.

as all for me, for now, but up next sport, life looks at footballs. most common results. the one i'll draw. i'll be back with more headlines at the top of the hour. told me aladdin. well, thanks for your company. with her again that i want that's hard and in the end the some me you are not allowed to you anymore. we will send you back her. are you familiar with this reliance of the what's your story. ready ready and he was not.