ah, ah ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin. the world condemns apparent atrocities by russian forces and ukraine. ukraine's government says its troops have retaken the entire cave region, but there's evidence of torture, abuse, and hundreds of civilian deaths. also coming up missiles strike, the strategic port of odessa. russia says it targeted critical infrastructure, but ukrainians fear that moscow is planning to step up its bombardment and to bowl

challenge to hunger is hard line. prime minister, victor, or bon rival opposition parties unite in an attempt to force out the veteran leader . it's the tightest election race in more than a decade. ah . a marion evan stain. it's good to have you with us. western leaders have condemned apparent atrocities committed by russian forces in ukraine. the ukrainian government says his troops have regained control of the entire area around the capital, key of bonds. ukrainian soldiers moving back into previously occupying towns and villages have uncovered hundreds of civilian deaths with many victims having been brutalized. ukraine's president vladimir zalinski has accused russia of genocide. moscow has deniva allegations,

a warning to our viewers. this next report contains images that some may find disturbing. the debris of war a graveyard of tanks, stanzas, evidence of russia's southern retreat and ukraine's determination to defend the area around keith. but the letter of russian hardware isn't the only sign of conflict, buildings of scorched and destroyed. entire neighborhoods devastated and alongside that the grim reminders of the very human cost of conflict. bodies lie on the st. suggesting indiscriminate killing an evidence of possible war crimes. even in death, the bodies have been afforded little dignity. ukrainian soldiers, fer russian forces, might have hidden explosives in the corpses as they left. it was something ukrainian precedent flawed amidst lensky included in this warning message. the occupants withdrawl is revealing a catastrophic situation. and there is still so much danger. do not doubt this

asteroid could continue, and they are setting booby traps everywhere in houses, not even in the bodies of those killed. there are many trap flaws and other dangerous. amid the trauma, though, is a sense of relief that the russians have left with residents coming together, sharing meals and a sense of victory after weeks of living in constant fear. it will be everything will be wonderful for the laundry. hans didn't shelling for more than a month when everything was gone. the water was gone. light gas, everything was gone at once. then the internet was gone, so then the phone communications went down. this we found ourselves cut off from the whole world to the ship to a mirror, but the death and destruction all around shade the huge price paid in the past weeks. every 40, every corpse is a friend or neighbor, a mother or brother,

miss wellington landscaping. honest man who loved. and they simply shamelessly uninformed knowledge, crushed him to death with a rushing tang residence here. no, this retreat does not indicate an end to the wolf. ukraine is preparing for what may come next. as russia regroups its forces for attacks in other parts of the country. joining us now on the line is our correspondence new connelly. he's made his way to the north eastern key of region where ukrainian forces say they've retaken territory from retreating russian troops. nick, can you just tell us where you are and what are you seeing and hearing? so i've spent the day about $100.00 kilo, which is know, each of the border region which we have in some villages that we taken by your forces. just a matter of days ago, they basically being taken by the russian troops within a matter of days of this war began. they make separate. and since then they've been

cut off without power, without gas, without the phone connection, or very rare ability to make calls. they basically been living in a vacuum, not knowing what was going on outside. we spoke to people at that time, in the cellar, hiding from the russians on the streets outside. be so people who return now every day to how did they find that how they should be empty. all that carried else by the retreats and russians. that's what they believe. huge crate. marine fire insurance got up to new britain and was also shown pictures on mobile phones and bodies of sitting in the town around in recent days. we didn't see them with our own eyes, but still people that are missing on accounted for lots of questions among people who are that where they are. and it's the funding again a lot. we've of course,

in seeing their heretic footage of dead civilians lying in the streets of. bu, what more can you tell us about the situation there? so it's tracy, which those are towns that are a whole lot closer to kids. today. they're only about 20 downtown kids kind of subs of young families, buying apartment to me with attention complexes. and they also be taken by you posted in recent days. but i think the re teaching of both a lot less complete than we need to up to lots of tockets of russian forces. so. so one thing that they would, they would check on you claimant post by what's important to be hiding out in the park to try to get out towards the main post. and now all of those buildings will be observed. we've seen those pictures and we're trying to work out trying to

verify those and just tried to talk to people who come out of butcher. but the issue is that the authorities are not letting us in yet gentle attorney expected in the main to be allowed in the to day time. because all those mines and civil janice have been killed that week. which i difficult situation to try and try and verify something that. ready is causing a lot of stress and my lowering pregnancy for the most thought hadn't seen images of this kind of damage in this kind of civilian lives in the early a week of the war that people dying and variable because of obsolete and basically kind of until the shelling of visits where it was kind of tough to killing the church, and that's something that people haven't and that's holding a whole lot of a lot of consternation among people who now 2nd to double use nick connelly. nick, thank you so much for your reporting. we can now speak to

ashleen reedy, she's a senior senior, legal advisor at human rights watch. welcome to the w. so we just heard from our correspondent about the reports of civilian killings in boucher ukraine's president . let him is the lens. he has said that to russia's actions amount to genocide. is he right? i think it's far too early at this stage to to talk about genocide. it's obviously not off the table, but genocide is a very specific crime with a very high threshold about the intent to destroy in hold or parse a civilian population. and you know what your correspondent and what others are witnessing. i mean is this certainly will crime potential crimes against humanity where we're seeing, you know, civilians killed purity killed in summary, execution format, and the investigation. he's recently areas which at least just taken back on an

official training courses. i'm hoping not accessible for a couple of days even though while they were being being reclaimed by ukrainian forces. so it's, it's very early days to start talking about the, the full scope of what might, what crimes may may not be committed but, but as you said yourself, what we're seeing on the ground is, is really quite or if we can and you know, we have investigated on the ground as well, has spoken to 2 witnesses also recounted, you know, terrible experiences themselves which would also constitute will crime so, so it will make it right. so you mentioned the members of your organization have been collecting evidence in fact and rights watch has just published a report documenting these laws of war violations by russian forces in ukraine. can you tell us a bit about what those findings were?

yes, certainly. i mean, one of the findings was a summary execution of a civilian in boucher, which is one of the areas that is currently very prominent in immediate coverage. but the cases that we documented come from from different areas both from around kias near keith. your chance keith, and they are very disturbing. they are more summary executions. in one case of 6 men, there was a really horrible document, a case of a woman who is repeatedly raped at by a soldier in a, in a school building where she had been sheltering. and then we've been hearing other stories of, you know, potential losing and, and pillage and but the summary executions on the, the right. but i think the 2 that's done it for us as some of the most graphic accounts of what are would clearly be war crimes that, that we've heard from people now coming, who have been in areas which of the underwriter, commercial occupation. we can't say how wide spread they are and certainly the

cases we have are from different areas. but it's quite clear that that, that civilians, that they're helping walk arms committed against civilians. and the task of investigators going forward is going to be decide how many and what kind of a scale they kurt on and ultimately, you know, who's responsible at the lower end of the chain and, and of the change of command responsibility. where were the commanders, when the sodas, with carrying out and these kinds of crimes and who both responsibility. and yet, even if there is clear and carefully documented evidence of war crimes and ukraine, can any of the perpetrators ever be brought to justice? i don't, they certainly countless, we know they, the international criminal court has an investigation already opened down. we know they have jurisdiction being ukraine out. we'd know that russia doesn't necessarily cooperate, but you know, very often people don't and yet people end up in

a and up in court had happened to slumbered on the loss of itchin. ah, the serbian bosnia vulcans. busy were president, turned over by sheer flora president from sudan is sitting in jail and he has genocide charges pending in the hague, and he may well be transferred. another one of his militia ally is his trial is starting this week for private and dar 4. so it is entirely possible that when cases are opened, whether that's at the international criminal court, or whether it's in a national court because there are a lot of national investigations going on, that those who are responsible i will be brought to justice. we might not see it in the immediate aftermath um, but as i said, we seen in dar 4. we've seen in other places that as several years after crime is committed and there's still ample opportunity for people to tell, typically face justice, ashleen reedy, senior legal advisor and human rights watch. thank you so very much. thank you. i

am thinking while missiles have struck the strategic port of odessa home to ukraine's navy on the southern coast until now and as i had mostly avoided russian attacks and so far been spared the intense bombing that's devastated. the city of mario pl. further to the east, russia says its latest strikes, targeted an oil plant and fuel depos, but ukrainians fear that moscow is planning to step up the bombardment bomb strike. he crane's main port city of odessa, turning the torn sky, orange quaking residence up to a new phase of rushes. war in ukraine, an aide worker film. the bombings on his phone. i woke up approximately it 4 or 4 30 am because so our house was a bit shaking lately. so naples was very big noise also dis rocha, buck,

rocket dogs. and this guy was read the, you know, and the small goals. udi a load of them's dorman, knew it was a big explosion to booth like if an airplane crash will switch with somebody. 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. another bureaucratic of the nearby news nile shall as local people watched plumes of smoke gloom 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 for the east. a dresser emergency crews have not yet had to deal with heavy russian bombardment like the

eastern port of mario pole. but ukraine's president zalinski 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. we're joined now from odessa by lawrence sheets. he is the former n p r. moscow bureau chief and head of consulting group duration, international analytics. he's covered the soviet union in russia for more than 3 decades, and has been reporting in the military situation in odessa for the past 2 weeks. welcome to w, can you just describe for us what happened in odessa earlier today? what did you experience about 40.