authors and starts april 16th on d, w ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin, fighting back ukrainian forces say they have retaken the entire cave region, but soldiers moving into villages and towns around the capitol find scores dead civilians. also coming up missiles hit the strategic port, city of odessa, people in the ukranian city wake up the sound of explosions and black smoke filling the sky. ukraine's government says tough bottles in the south and east could be

ahead. and hungarians, head to the poles and parliamentary elections, prime minister victor or men, is fighting a coalition of 6 opposition parties with one goal, ousting him after over a decade in office. ah, i'm nick spicer, welcome to the program. ukraine says russian troops has either withdrawn or been repelled from the entire region around keith. the defense ministry says its forces have re taken more than 30 towns and villages for weeks bottles north of the capital region kept russian forces from advancing. but now some of the true cost of that resistance is becoming clear as ukrainian soldiers and members of the red cross entered these locations. a warning to our viewers. this next report contains images. some may find disturbing. as russian troops withdraw from northern

districts of keys, ukrainian forces are arriving to find death and destruction in their wake. the town of who, who is the scene of what some here are describing as a massacre. dozens of bodies lie on the road resident say the retreating russian shot any one they found. for a hor delete. they mean these people were just walking and they shot them without any reason or bang in the next neighborhood. poster colker, it was even worse. they shot without asking any questions. shoot their whistle nicked on you turn his brother to his town. mayers as these are just some of several 100 civilians killed her. it was to renew the toys of executed. people still lying, the blue sky street in boca, in their hands, the tie behind their backs with white civilian rags from if they was shot in the back of their heads. in an open trench bodies appear to be partially burned,

it's feared russian troops may have also left explosives and land mines behind. in european, another town north of the capital, a red cross team filled the devastation as they arrived to treat the survivors elsewhere. ukrainian forces say they are re taking all the towns and villages in the kiev region that had been under russian control. the president volunteers to lensky is warning. russia may be readying its forces to attack elsewhere. and we can cross over now to our correspondent nick connelly, he has made his way to the north eastern cave region. we're ukrainian forces say they've retaken territory from retreating. russian forces. and nick, where are you and what are you seeing now? time about 100 kilometers. ne, a gold key on the east bank of the new pro river. we just been literally 5 minutes ago in some ukrainian positions that were up to then last week where the front

lines, the russians are about for coming to the way they've been digging in and preparing a longer fight to the end. they didn't even have jobs to finish building those trenches and those kind of protective areas. because in the end, the russians were treated now about 18 inches away, where we are. but there are lots of signs of destruction. huge craters where shelling happened was that someone exploded, broke it in the fields around us and cycle that performers are still trying to get out. and so their crops for the next season. so there's lots of dangers around worried about mines and of weapons and various kinds of explosives left on all event. and we've just seen those horrific pictures of dead civilians, apparently lying in the streets of book. what more do you know about the situation there and, and other towns? what issue with boucher and in those there is that journalists are not able to get in there yet. we expect to get in a few days time. so we're not able to, i didn't to verify those pictures independently to see with our eyes,

but definitely the situation is desperate and will be last week. so we be hearing from people who were there in those towns unable to get out, spoke to failed attempts to organize monitoring car doors and can proceed to now people to get out in safety and stuff in case the people are even using a lot of trying to get out those image shocking people across ukraine hadn't seen that kind of treatment of civilians, documented with pictures in the week. so in a way for you creating civilians following this war from their homes. you know, being bombed on a daily basis. they are now seeing these images and being with reality verification and the cost to it. we can only imagine the horror they must be feeling the nic and other question. if i made the red cross and the ukranian government have been gathering evidence and testimonies about possible war crimes since the beginning of the conflict. is there some of that going on? now, do you know?

what if a, this is confess to the gathering information gathering on the documentation can special chat on telegram the best way to do the full things can report some pictures can give that testimony if they've been can say to sexual violence, that's all being collated and prepared way i think that is pretty uniquely most complex kind of stuff will happen later by which sounds often very difficult to reconstruct stuff. now that is happening kind of almost immediately and we'll see this cool. those were supposed to be controlled. first part of this region to katie, w correspondent, nick connelly in the suburbs of ki, reporting on the russian pull out and the exact sions inactive against civilians. apparently, mythos have hit ukraine's port city of odessa. the strategic city lies along

ukraine, southern coastline, and has been largely spared from russian attacks. unlike the devastated port city of mary opal for the east ukrainian officials say miss, i'll fit one of her death says critical infrastructure facilities this morning. footed shows dark clouds of large billowing smoke filling the sky. on friday, ukraine's military said that its anti air defenses had blocked an attempted rushing to strike and rejoin now from odessa by laurence sheets, a former n t r. moscow bureau chief and head of the consulting group, the ration international analytics, is cover the soviet union and russia for over 3 days and is now in the port city where he's been reporting on the military situation for the past 2 weeks. lawrence, thanks for joining us. what happened overnight at about 4 30 am local, which would be 3 30 am further in time. we were open to alert on our cell phones throw to desa as to a warranty,

which usually means an imminent strike of some sort. at 6 am precisely, there were enormous explosions. obviously large caliber rockets, landing in the port area of the city about one kilometer from the port i can see black smoke emitting from the port. the target appeared to be fuel depos and other places within the port, which is heavily fortified from the outside and blockaded from the outside by the russian forces no accounts as casualties. but this is the 1st direct attack on the city over death itself. so the 1st attack, how people been reacting well, predictably sense odessa has been largely unscathed. as you noted many reactive panic. there is a bomb shelter, right next to the house, the apartment in which i stay and several immediately went for the bomb shelter next door. on the other hand, these 2 families from the building started packing

a few things and got into their cars and sped away within 15 minutes because they're just as largely been scared, their air raid siren. there's been bombing on the outside of the city from the sea, russian ships, this sort of thing. so of course, since the 1st time they've been direct hits in the, what is essentially the center of or decimal and is the main ports. i mean, i can't emphasize enough, this is not only the mean port, it's responsible for 70 percent of ukrainian imports and exports. and it's the only remaining port, which we mean in terms of c transport. it is the only port. it's located right now by russian naval forces, but it just makes life all the more difficult and it did cause panic among many people who have gotten to the routes nervous, but have gotten used to the fact that death has been touched yet. and how does

a desa fit into the big picture of russia's invasion of ukraine? what is the significance possibly of this attack? it's the crown jewel going back to 2014. this is city founded in 1700 by catherine the great and historically has been in of clarity or majority jewish city. many of those people of course, ended up unfortunately in the holocaust. but there's still a very strong jewish community here. and many people have jewish relatives, and the repercussions in israel cannot be good. and a lot of people ask, what is his real doing to helpless, basically, either strategically, militarily, in terms intelligence, so on and so forth. and you'll see that you feel that reservation for many days. i think i doubt this will be the last attack on the desa. 3 dangerous weather doing this is a stream, the beautiful story city. they hit the port,

but if you happen to miss and we have to assume and we're being told by the ukrainian military, that the rockets were fired from the annex crimea area. and these rockets can slide several 100 kilometers, easily hit. but if you're off course, by a few meters, or even a kilometers, and then you can get this under the city of cars, tremendous reduction, destruction, and death. just a quick final question. if i may, how does this compare to the other port city that we all know about, mariel, paul, which is being bombarded? is it a harder city to, to take over strategically? it's an extreme, it's for one thing. and 3 times the size of variable, at least mobile was unheard of. although i spent much time there in 2014, 2015. a death is a famous city. was basically the symbolic remaining city considered as a jewish, historically jewish city in the world of judaism. so as a stork,

symbolic importance as well as procedures important to take it, i find in comprehensible it's extremely, will attended with all sorts of underground tunnels and everything you can imagine . and the preparations have been made in every way. so to take it in any sort of meaningful way to invade for a ground invasion. conceit wherever i find very hard to believe but doesn't mean any kind of rain shelves or bomb things and a lot of people. okay. lawrence sheets in odessa. thank you for that. insight and stay safe. thank you, sir. and staying in odessa, i'm joined by philip sold of niche unco of the ukraine in red cross. can you tell us, philip, how the attack unfolded for you this morning? good day. so actually i woke up approximately at 4 or 4

30 am because our house was a bit shaking yet and lately unable, it was very big noise. also disregard that rocket at dogs. and this guy was read the, you know, and the small goals. and we're looking at some of the pictures as you speak of that sky going red with, with flashes i suppose from, from an explosion. let me ask you about your work with ukrainian red cross. how is that organization getting prepared to help deal with the attacks and i guess possible casualties in odessa how to say so we're all the time on st in by mold. so even like the 3rd day or sunday. so have like emergency group emergency call center who is all the time on line. and also everybody's been also our medical crew. so everybody is working 24 or 7 and

everybody is 10 by more and are people giving blood and so on? are you from gathering supplies? i mean, i guess, you know, if you're, if you're getting getting ready there's, there's a lot to prepare. yes. so we have a connection between different dumb just and we tried to get more in and medical stuff for us. so will the old time working, especially me working with there to build this way, you know, to get the, the whole stuff what we need the rain, you know this of course. yeah. as, as it is across the country. a final question so far and in this war, as we've been hearing just hasn't been a heavy target of russian attacks. are people you know, in your family, in your entourage, your friends and fellow citizens of the city concerned that that is all changing now? i, i didn't know with good work confusing could be, you know, because the boy these, you know, so maybe one week was like

a silence. and then the one week they started this one. so we're just trying to think about some future. but you know, after this, doug said mediately, you can destroy this one from your mind. ok, yeah. must a difficult situation on day to time wishing you all the best. phillips followed oven and chunk of the red cross in a desa. thank you and stay safe as well. thank you so much. here's a quick look now at some of the other stories related to the war we've been following for you. ukrainian troops have re taken control of the tone of airport close to the capital kiva. after pushing back russian forces, the wreckage of the world's largest cargo airplane was found in one of the hangers, severely damaged military equipment was also left behind. more than 200 people were arrested in cities across russia during protest against the war with ukraine on saturday. that's according to

a group monitoring political detention in the country. demonstrations continue despite.