make up your mind. ah, the w made for mines ah, ah ah, this is dw use lie from berlin fighting back ukrainian forces say they have re taking the entire key if region troops soldiers moving into villages and towns around the capital find scores of dead civilians. also coming up missiles hit the strategic port of odessa, the city wakes to explosions as thick black smoke fills the sky. and

a bold challenge to hungary is hard line prime minister victor orbit driver opposition parties unite in an attempt to force out the veteran leader is the tightest election race in more than a decade. ah, i monica jones. good to have you with us. ukraine says russian troops have either withdrawn or been repelled from the entire region around keefe. the defense ministry says its forces have re take more than 30 towns and villages for weeks. battles north of the capitol region kept russian forces from advancing. but now, some of the true cost of that resistance is becoming clear and 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 has 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 st in. you do the toys of executed. people still lying, the blue sky street and book you in the hands, the tie behind that box with white civilian rags. from here, 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 of the towns and villages in the kiev region that had been under russian control. but president, for lot of mer to lensky is warning. russia maybe readying its forces to attack elsewhere. earlier we spoke to our correspondent nick connelly in the region north east of kieffer, where ukrainian forces they've taken territory from retreating. russian troops. here is his assessment of the situation in butcher. what issue with breach in dpi, though, 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 own 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 smart core doors and can proceed to now people to get out in safety and start in case the people are even using a lot of trying to get out those images, you'll see 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. not being bombed on a daily basis. they are now seeing these images end up being with reality verification and the cost to missiles have hit the port of odessa on ukraine's southern coast until now the city has mostly avoided russia attacks, unlike the intense bombing that devastated mario pole. but now ukrainians fear a new face of the war has begun. palm strike, he crane's main port city of odessa. turning the tone sky orange

waking residence up to a new phase of rushes. war in ukraine and aid worker filled the bombings on his phone. i woke up approximately it 4 or 4 30 am because our house was a bit shaking lately. so animals was very big noise also dis rocha, buck roggette dogs. and this guy was read the you know, and the small goals caboodle at adams. dorman, knew it was a big explosion to blue, like if an airplane crash to a spiritual go somewhere. i have never seen something like that and she knew through the whole issue and we need to close the sky because we don't want this to happen again. none, mother, beauty critical, the nearburg news nile shall, as local people watched plumes of smoke loom over the city, the authorities there said russia had hit critical infrastructure,

but there were no reports of casualties. so it wasn't like russia's defense ministry said it's ships and planes had bombed an oil processing plant and fuel depos near odessa. it set the facilities supply fuel to ukraine's troops in coastal towns further east. a dresser emergency crews have not yet had to deal with heavy russian bombardment like the east and port of mario pole, but ukraine's president. sir lensky says that russian troops are regrouping and preparing what he calls powerful strikes and addresses. residents are left wondering. just how long they can stay here. for more, i'm a joint now from odessa by lawrence sheets. he's a for my npr moscow bureau chief and head of consulting group you ration

international analytics. he has also come to the soviet union and russia fo, 3 decades. and he is now from odessa, where he has been reporting on the military situation for the past 2 weeks. very good to have you with us, lawrence. just tell us what happened last night, or rather early this morning of their about 430 m o. we received those of us in odessa text messages on our cell phones. warming warning of an imminent irrate, basically some general warning that was told by your read sirens and then its 6 am exactly on the route, extremely loud explosions, which would only be miss lyles. and that has been confirmed why ukrainian military sources they landed about one kilometer for i'm sitting near the port in odessa. they're still black smoke. really, you into the sky, even though it's been 8 and a half hour since will 8 hours since the missile struck on odessa is not just out

or ukraine's biggest port. um, it's the last remaining port 70 percent of imports and exports used to come through odessa. of course it's been blocked off by the russian evil forces for several weeks now. but um ukraine being a major supplier of world, wheat supplies, and other agricultural goods. and the conduit for imports, the importance can't be overstated. absolutely. so strategically, that is also playing a big role. well, it will go into that in just a moment. but, i mean, what about people there? we know that odessa has so far been bad, mostly had prepared with people there for, for this kind of attack. i think you're extremely prepared on the fact that a couple of months went by and the showing from russian naval boats have been limited to showing from boats from the sea, from black sea limited to the outskirts, hadn't caused that much significant damage. but this was in the heart of odessa

on the streets. i can tell you, i just took a walk up to the market. very few people. i would say one of the usual level of traffic you would see on or your day or their shops or traffic or what have you. so the implications are if nothing else to terrorize. so william civilian population and to secure them, you mentioned earlier about the importance of odessa right now being the only port city the ukraine has available. do you think that russia is actually trying to completely cut off ukraine from having access to the sea? well, they were cut off to begin with from the sea. so make that very clear on they were cut off because the russians have blockaded from the sea there to support. so what we have our ships here in dry dock of the oil facilities and oil storage facilities which are now in fire by me. um, of course are strategic. but um it doesn't change the situation that ukraine was

already blockaded from the sea. the fact of the matter is that many people are talking about a possible land invasion from the sea, a marine invasion from the sea, from the sea, by russian forces. and that's impossible. it's possible, i guess anything is possible because nothing has been predictable in this work. but um, this is a city of catacombs of tunnels underneath, through limestone, it's extremely well fortified prepared. and i think people have been expecting this for the most part. well thank you so much, lauren sheets. they are obviously a man who is highly in demand because you've been reporting on the military situation for the past 2 weeks. thank you so much for your time. thank you. and here's a quick look at some other stories related to the war we've been following. for you . russian gas is no longer flowing to latvia, estonia and lithuania, the baltic states are stopped in ports. lithuania is calling on you countries to do

the same, but germany and other european nations are still buying russian energy rushes gas industries excluded from new sanctions or red cross convoys. again, trying to deliver aid and evacuate civilians from the besieged city of maria, paul, an early attempt was abandoned as too dangerous. an estimated 160000 civilians are still trapped without food or water. earlier we spoke to dw correspond, and rebecca ritter's in the western ukrainian city of love. if i asked her about the latest attempt to rescue civilians from maria pull or there's thought to be between anywhere between 800860000 people, still trapped in that besieged city. suffering bombardments for weeks now. her refill reports of no food, no water, no electricity. basically living in bunkers are watching relatives die of starvation and dehydration just horrific. are scenes there now the,

there is reports that a convoy is trying once again today to make it inside that received city. as you just reported, they have not been able to get in to the city for the last 3 days. it's been too dangerous. they've decided they had to turn back. this is a convoy that supported by the international red cross, some civilians, however, in some slightly good news have made it out in the last days is about 3000 civilians have made it out in their personal cause. just sort of trying to risk that treacherous journey outside of that city because they just want to escape the horrible scenes in there. it's so many more deciding that it's too risky, and it's probably hedging their bets trying to stay inside the city. at least 1000 people are reported to have died in that bombardment in the, in the recent in recent weeks. and just today we heard that a lithuanian filmmaker has also been reported to have been killed by russian forces

there in that city. a lot of those are refugees, of course, are headed to, to where you are to live. if in western ukraine it's become a refuge for hundreds of thousands of refugees already. are you hearing that people may now be planning to return at least to those areas that have been taken by the ukrainian forces? that's right. live is relatively safe compared to eastern parts of the country. and so many of the refugees and internally displaced, people have been passing through here just yesterday train from are with people from mary you poll arrived here in levine about 300 or so. and they've been going to centers here in the city. and there are reports that people do want to now return even people that have been in the overseas in overseas, a broad, sorry, rather in poland and other parts of europe. they are, there are reports of thousands of people now actually returning to back into ukraine and trying to go to areas that are deemed safe or at least relatively safe

over there. ukrainian authorities saying that those parts that have been recently retake in a still incredibly unsafe, you know, a hearing reports of bombs being put into dead bodies that are lying in the streets and in houses there by the retreating russian soldiers so that these areas is still not safe, isn't villains to return to ride rebecca, written their reporting for us or from live in western ukraine. thank you. rebecca . at the start of the war, russian troops took control of the area around the highly contaminated turn. not bill nuclear plant, after weeks of occupation, some may have been exposed to radiation channel bill as the site of the world's worst nuclear accident. and it remains a forbidden sown russian soldiers at the china beetle nuclear power plant. they took over the building on february, the 24th right at the start of russia invasion. did the troops really know much about the place that government had sent them?

apparently the young soldiers were clueless about the 1986 nuclear disaster, despite large numbers of death by radiation and heavy contamination. that's, that's vadim. pope demons view, morton and moscow. he's ukraine's chief engineer at china bill. and despite the risk of speaking to us, he agrees to an interview, he says, his co workers, who were helped by russian troops for almost 4 weeks, told him that the russian soldiers might have mistaken the protective shell around the failed reactor for an assembly hall. and we'll know protective clothing need to do that. they thought the respirators were there to protect them from cove it and didn't understand that you had to put them on to prevent inhaling radioactive dust . so when you decide to get the pro ukrainian tv station reports that in the so called red forest near the plant which is highly contaminated, russian soldiers are reported to have dug trenches. and consequently we'll have

received a considerably low.