ah, ah, ah ah, this is dw news line from berlin, germany prepares for possible disruptions to his gas deliveries from russia. the government announces if activating an early warning plan to prepare for potential shortages. this after germany rejects rush as demands to pay for gas and rubles also coming up. russia says it will reduce military activity around the ukrainian capital. keep falling peace talks for the united states, warns this is not necessarily a withdrawal. ah,

i'm have a quote. awesome, welcome to the program. we begin here in germany where the government has announced its activating and early warning plan in preparation for possible shortages and gas deliveries from russia. economy minister, robert ha, back says a crisis team is being established to closely monitor gas supplies. this follows moscow's demand for payment in roubles which berlin and other importers have rejected. how back was with the green party, and germany's government also urged domestic industry and households to try and conserve energy via zehnder. i'm a drug. we are in a situation where i have to say clearly that every kilowatt hour of energy saved helms on this. and that is why i would like to combine the triggering of the early warning level for gas supplies with the appeal for hill to companies and private consumers. you are helping germany. you are helping ukraine when you reduce your

use of gas single energy. and general nike in schism i'm spawn are political correspondent, julia so jolly is with us now outside the german ministry of economy. julia, what exactly is this early warning plant and what does it mean now that they've activated it to this 1st step that has now been called into question by the government as part of a 3 step gas emergency plan. it is the lowest step in this plan and what it means is that a crisis team is going to start meeting a very often. and part of this crisis team are going to be people from the economy, ministry, from a, a, a network agency here in germany. but also from energy providers and they are going to monitor the situation and monitor the gas supply and a, provide a regular reports on the situation. now this is the lowest of the 3 steps and the

others would be activated in case of a deteriorating situation. but for the moment the government isn't going to take direct action in the market and it's mostly going to be a monitoring situation and the government doesn't expect it to escalate anytime soon. hopefully dw correspondent, julia sally. thank you very much, julia enjoy now by rob watch. did all these business department, rob? germany has long been criticized for its reliance on russian gas? now moscow is demanding that berlin pay in roubles wise moscow asking for this. because bear in mind that the russian economy is in real trouble from the sanctions that have been imposed, you know, they've got inflation of over 14 percent. i've also got the fact that the rouble has lost 40 percent of its value since the start of the war. and that's what this is really all about. now one of the ways that you stabilize a currency which the russian government really needs to do is to increase demand

for it. and one of the ways you can increase demand for it is by forcing people who spend a lot of money with you to spend roubles with you. so that's one of the things behind what president putin, himself, in an analysis himself is, is pushing. but also you've got the fact that, you know, sanctions make it much harder for russian organizations. russian individuals as well to deal in euro's and dollars if they want to trade them with other countries because there's sanctions in place to stop that. so again, by getting more roubles in, they start to find a way around those sanctions. and that's actually why you're hearing from, from the germans, your say hearing from other europeans, the g 7 that this would undermine the sanctions. if germany would stop paying and ripples talk to us a little bit about how concerned berlin is right now, that russia might turn off the pipes. well, we do have this deadline tomorrow, so it feels like something very eminent. but, you know, with this is stage one of 3, we've got this, which is an early warning alert. and then you've got the next stage which is an

alert level. but it isn't until the 3rd step that the german government actually starts to step in and start to make policy. that means that households, but importantly, businesses have to change how they're using their gas. so most likely to be hit by that 1st would be heavy industry steel makers because households would ultimately be insulated from this as much as they could be. but we would start to see real problems with how germany can exports it's products. and you know, we already have all kinds of supply chain problems in the global economy. so it's not something that anyone wants to happen, but we are now starting on the road in that direction. talk to us a little bit more about household. what kind of impact is going to be you know, felt by germans living here? well i mean, you know, the cost of gas in europe has increased fivefold in the last year. and that's a big way in which germany gets the energy to households. you know, 15 percent of germany's energy comes from gas around half of that actually does

come from russia. so as a result of that gas prices go up, that means bills go up and we're already seeing that jim's can help. but notice that their energy bills are already starting to rise. and we are seeing that have a big impact on people's mood here. and there was a, some research published yesterday on consumer confidence here in germany, and it is fallen through the floor in the last month, despite the fact that we've seen corona vice restrictions being relaxed. that should've been something that provided a boost in thing should be looking up in germany, but actually people are starting to be pessimistic. not optimistic. did other businesses, rob wyatt? thank you very much for your insights. rob. so, russia's plaid should reduce military operations or crime around the ukrainian capital. keith has been met with skepticism by the united states and ukraine. they say moscow is just repositioning troops and not necessarily withdrawing russian forces had already been pushed back from air pin, a suburb of the capitol,

leaving behind ruins and the bodies of dead civilians. washington warrens that moscow could now be preparing for a major offensive elsewhere in russia's pledge to reduce its operations around 2 ukrainian cities, came after peace talks between the russian and ukrainian delegations. in istanbul, ukraine has proposed that it is willing to be permanently neutral, but says requires security concerns grantees rather from a group of nations. another round of peace talks, but this time with 1st signs of progress is ukraine opens up to discuss, adopting a neutral status crush promised to scale down operations. but it is the russian defense ministry has made the important decision to decrease military activity. several fold in the direction of keith and churn, to his, to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations. negotiations that will be needed to increase trust,

but in action and not in words, ukraine's presidents rest stock more than those of other. yes, we can say that the signals we hear from the talks are positive. i'll it. but the signals can't silence the explosions from russian sheleesha seasonal. of course, we see all of the risks though, and of course life we don't see ground to trust the words coming from representatives of the country that continues trying to destroy us over your body. that are the nozzle. let me show russia's announcement was also met with skepticism in washington. but i think we should be clear eyed about the reality of what's happening on the ground and no one should be fooled by russia's announcements. we believe any movement of forces for around cave is a re deployment and not a withdrawal i in the world should be prepared for a major offensive against other areas of ukraine offensives that in the future should be stopped by other countries acting as security guard tours an idea that

key if proposed in exchange for neutrality and in place of nato membership as peace talks, gain momentum. there is no also another possibility on the horizon. a high level meeting between both presidents at spring. indeed, i'll be forest planet. mathias bellinger, who joins us from the ukrainian capital. keith mathias, the ukranian delegation, has made a peace proposal. what security assurances are they asking for? exactly, ah, basically what they have said is that these security guarantees should be stronger than what the night nato countries have agreed on in article 5. which means that they expect countries to declare that they would be ready to step in if the country was attacked. and that's what one adviser has said. other official sources have a talk more about the possibility to procure or to provide weapons to ukraine. so

basically the idea would be $245.00 ukraine in a way that it could really be not a member of nature, but be armed so much that it would be very difficult to attack it and pop last possibly. i mean, it's of different sources, different saying different things, but possibly even the guarantee that other countries, even though not through the mechanisms of nato, would step in the case of an attack. and he has russia says it will drastically reduce its military activity near to ukraine. and stated cities including the capital. is there a sense in cave where you are that moscow is retreating or simply looking to regroup? if anything shelling in the suburbs have the only intensified in the past 24 hours where he explosions quite often now and it does not look that fighting activity has been reduced. of course,

by the sound we cannot judge who has been shooting how many ro rounds. we know that the crane president loading her zalinski has been asking for direct talks with vladimir putin for some time. russia now says this may soon be possible. what more can you tell us about that? whoa, the idea that the ukranian president has brought forward was that the jews president would discuss. the says, situation in don boss or the future often bustle. this region that is, has been divided between the 2 factor divided between the 2 on paper divided between ukrainian control and controlled by these self proclaimed republics. um, during the past 8 years they learned that was one of the things that the lens gas said in his election campaign that he wanted to have direct talks with russia. russia has a snub to this idea and has not been willing to a potent has not been willing to talk to him. um,

we've heard that yesterday that there might be a that this might be a way out. i as, as, as with everything in these talks on both sides on our testing the waters and none of the words should be taken literally. but we will see what comes out of that dw correspondent mathias bellinger reporting from the ukrainian capital. thank you. now for a quick look at some of the other stories were falling for a this hour in israel, a gun men on a motorcycle has killed at least 5 people after opening fire on a crowd just east of tel aviv. it's the 3rd such incident in the last week. the attacker, reportedly a palestinian from the west bank, was killed by police. 2 other attacks had been claimed by the so called islamic state. adrian officials say at least 7 people have been killed and many injured in an attack on a major railway line. on monday, security sources say some 970 passengers are on board. a train linking

a booge out with the north west city of kaduna. when assailants detonated a bomb on the tracks before opening fire, china's most populous city, shanghai is grappling with a strict to part locked down, aimed at curtailing the city's worst outbreak of coven 19. the measures have seen the cities financial district who don effectively cut off from shanghai historic center with bridges, tunnels and roads. now closed in football, senegal are heading to the world cup after defeating egypt on penalties in their playoff just as they did. and february's african nations comp, final, senegal sport early through idea who made it 11 on aggregate. there are no further goals, meaning the tie went to penalties. and egypt star player mohammed sala missed his spot cake before sadie sadie. o. money scored the winning penalty to san senegal to

the 3rd world cup in their country's history, gonna cameroon morocco and to use yes. joint senegal as african representation in guitar. on the european side of world cup qualification, 2 of the 3 remaining spots have been filled. portugal defeated north macedonia to nil to san christiano, rinaldo, to his 5th world cup elsewhere. poland beat sweden to knell with robert lemond osceola. among the goal scores ukraine's play off semi final with scotland has been postponed until a beast june. the winter will take on wales for a place in cutter. you're watching dw news. here's a recap of our main story. germany has announced its activating it's early warning plan in preparation for possible shortages to gas supplies from russia. the government stress there are currently no shortages, but that it would be establishing a crisis team to monitor the situation more closely. lee,

and here's my colleague gearhart al. first, we with you at the top of the hour with more and you can get the latest news business sports any time on our website. that's d w dot com. and now the quote awesome for all of us here. do you thanks for being with not just another day. so much is happening all at once. we take time to understand this is the day and in depth look at current news, events analyzed by experts and critical thinkers. this is through the weekdays. on d, w.