or efforts in the don bass region ukraine is urging people to evacuate while they still can. russian forces are pouring into eastern ukraine and devastating offensives are expected. the kremlin pulled back from around keith after its military objective to take the capitol failed. but the slaughter of innocent civilians and surrounding areas is becoming more and more evident. the gruesome killings in the town of boucher have ignited another round of sanctions from the west and its allies. i am abby qual dawson and this is the day. ah, the ripping images from boucher have left us all deeply shaken, responsible nation, have to come together all these perpetrators accountable, the perpetrators must pay. we have to be serious with our sanctions. we're going to keep raising the economic cost. this may last for a long time,

for many months or even years. it must be our goal that russia does not win this war. also on the day, a severe economic crisis, a rob into a political one to as people in sri lanka demand the resignation of their president . i welcome to the program. after 4 weeks under russian occupation, the world is now gradually finding out the scale of the horrors inflicted on the town of boucher grim evidence of killings and torture has emerged since russian troops retreated bodies in civilian clothing lying in the streets and piled up in mass graves, those who survived are telling their stories, dw alexandra phone,

numbe, and has travelled to boucher to hear 1st hand what people have experienced. a warning, the following report contains disturbing images on the road to boucher burnt out tanks and car wrecks give a foreboding of the horrors. the small town has lived through in the center of butcher residents came together like every day hoping for humanitarian help to life . food is scarce, here, they say many seem deeply traumatized, while anemia and his mother told me they saw their friends and neighbors detained and killed by rational forces. couldn't you signal wichita that they took him on march 7 and nasa turned out he was shot him dead. a day later took her down, you took closely. we found his body only after they retreated. and when actually it that the what yellows we found his body with his fingers broken their party and a shot to the head if they prefer it in the hollow. yes, the kicker to little people were buried in the back yard still,

or in the forest dumbly sousa had any here in butcher, russian soldier, stent, accused of terrible war crimes. witnesses speak of summary executions of civilians killed at will. the crating and government is urging international experts to come to which are to investigate the allegations. they hope that what happened here will be a turning point in the international response to the war. at the ever and of butcher forensic scientists arrived at the spec yards to pick up the bodies of sick civilians discovered their recently authority say they were not held by and bombard messiah, but shall dat. and then set on fire ye unlock only be score. use me, shoot you dinner or all the soldiers kill soldiers. joanna, are watching it to the hotel. they been trained to her door. yeah. and are ready to die for their beliefs and ideals. idiology bottled boost, weird, or through

a killing civilians? hazard pro fish or yup. i'm almost not embrace it the in 3 color, but you feel the rush government dismissed the allegations as stage anti ration propaganda. but the evidence is mounting even though it full investigation could take time. time consuming is also the clearing of minds and booby traps placed into town. ukrainians. troops told us in butcher, then you miss there was a she can see yourself. there are many different types of military hardware here that can explode and threatened the lives of civilians over. so we're working on any who's who chest hill has a long way to go before life can get anywhere near back to normal. and the killings in future have come to light after russian forces withdrew from the area. and russia has pulled back because it says it's moving on to a new phase of the war to focus on the regions of daniel and the ganske. part of that territory has been held by pro russian separatists since 2014. the ukrainian

military also says the kremlin is preparing a new offensive. there was no needlessly. water was also the main effort to the enemy of focused on preparing for an offensive operation. the purpose of which is to establish full control over territory that the nets can lew hands. grievance, although his body hawker says, orders are the threat of the use of c s. unless based misses by the enemy continues to persist. remo was away. oh, go bonkers of the occupies or targeting or defense if installations logistics, infrastructure, and residential areas of cities will require pollock music for more last spring. and john spencer, he's a retired u. s. army major and an expert on urban warfare. he joins us from colorado springs and mr. spencer, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. let's start with what is coming to light out of boucher. what do you make of the killings of civilians there? yeah, to be frank, i'm still shaken from what i'm seeing there. i mean,

i've been in war of study war. don't let somebody tell you. this is just what happens in war. i don't think war crimes at all. me. it is war crimes under the law of war that clearly russian doesn't fall, but this type of intimate killing, the tying of civilians hands bind their back and shoot them in the head as an old soldier, i know that's a very intimate evil and not a rogue unit like, so don't let people tell you, this is just what happens is we're rush it is. this is genocide and that's what ukrainian officials have been saying and they are concerned that we're going to be hearing more of such atrocities and other areas. let's move on to the military aspect of this war. now the russian military, one of the largest on earth, they have the numbers. but what kind of challenges have they face when it comes to urban warfare? so they've been taught the list of the most of us have known for a long time, is that and the defender has the advantage. if you don't have the capability to rapidly get into urban areas before you, they start defending it, then you'll pay

a giant price or just fail. that's what russia did to be clear and key. they failed to achieve their objective, which is rapidly get into key and take out the government. so they try to pull a couple different plans to do that. they're not capable of doing any of them. she now they're re focusing on trying to achieve a different objective just so they can say there was something talked us about that main military objective on february 24th moscow's goal was to take, keep quickly as you said, that would have been their goal. they thought they could do it in 3 days. it hasn't happened. we're about to enter the 7th week of the war. now, why were they not able to take the capital? right, well i mean, clearly they weren't capable because they're not the big army that we thought they were as in that the other big numbers but not capable. so he's failed to, to get there to get into position, to even hold like the air field that we saw in hosta mel. and then once they failed every day that the korean is didn't lose their winning and preparing to defend. so

putting up blocks and barricade and road blocks to stop from sneaking into the city . and there is a credible military force, or it wasn't just all ukrainian citizens, but it was the combined power of the ukrainian military in the territory advanced. the civilian start blocking, taking out the bridges are attacking anybody who's trying to get into position, which we saw that as, as a went on as a really, we didn't see an urban fight like overseen a mirror pool. that i study as much because they, they prevented, they closed the gates analogy i use. they closed the gates to keep continued to contest the air, which to be frank, is still vital to their survival. it was vital to their survival in key had they not been able to contest the airs and prevent the russians from moving around in firing helicopter missiles and doing all that you can do from the air. so that's

where they they, they closed the gates to the castle, the fortress. that is, keep the political seat. what's the russian strategy now? when they say that they're going to focus on the don bass. yeah, their strategy now as to take these defeated, her broken apart high casualty units on, some of them will be pulled back into russia and, and bell roost and tried to be refitted and entered the, moving some directly over to the done boss. right. where, where there's been a worked in before 2014 for the eastern part of ukraine. they completely given up all what they entered the war to do. and now they're going to try to encircle the horses that are in the dub boston land. asked don, ask an in either overtake them or just encircle them and say, okay, this is ours. even though there's people inside of it, trying to get any type of a win out of their failed miserably inept military operation,

illegal invasion into you grant major. we can't talk about russia military failures in ukraine without talking about ukrainian resistance. you said very early on in his full scale invasion that ukraine has a real chance militarily, despite being outnumbered and outgunned. what is your assessment now? yeah, i see. i still think it's true. i mean, yeah, it, we're in a very dangerous situation, right. so if the russian somehow pull off, right, so really in all war you want the, your enemy to make more mistakes than you do and you capitalize on those. but they still don't have the thing that we know is the most critical thing. and worse not the size of your military, it's not even the weapons is the will to fight in your soldiers. the morale motivation in cohesion and russians didn't ever have that they believe in what they were doing in their cause. i mean, clearly some of them have evil in their minds in created, you know, cause great, so horrors,

but the ukrainian military in the citizens that are fighting along with them and the terror told events have what we know is vital in a battle like this. so there is no certainty is always going to happen because even if the ukrainians were al numbered and so he's location, they're not to be clear. they've been fighting for a long time in the dumbass. and those are some of the strongest ukrainian military forces that ukraine has, but they have with the russians don't, which is the will to fight in even the citizen look at mary opal. that's amazing that they're still fighting, still, holding now after weeks of siege and no water, no food, no, nothing. john spencer and urban warfare specialist with a madison policy forum. thank you very much for your time and for your insights. thank you. ah. the united states has announced a new round of sanctions against russia for what it calls war crimes in ukraine. the main targets are russian banks, but the measures are also aimed at former russian president dmitri met the death

and members of president vladimir putin se family u. s president joe biden described the measures as devastating and the white house as more measures are in the pipeline. the european union is also toughening its sanctions against russia in response to killing of civilians in boucher these pipelines are rushes lifeline, delivering gas and oil from siberia to europe. russia has earned a 1000000000 euros a day by supplying energy to the e. u. since the start of the war, ukraine's president is called for a stop to all energy payments to russia, to drain putin's war chest, a message under consideration at the european parliament in strasburg. there the u . s. provides us with at least additional 15000000000 cubic meters of energy gas this year. this gives us the opportunity to replace the russian elegy this year. second, for the coming years, we're aiming for at least an additional 50000000000 cubic meters annually. this

will give us the opportunity to replace at least one 3rd of the russian pipeline gas arriving in europe. on tuesday, ursula funder lion proposed an import ban on coal worth 4000000000 euros a year cement, wood and vodka from russia also on the new sanctions list. but the eas 27 member states have yet to vote on the measures. the you currently receives almost half of its leg night and heart call from russia, which it needs for steal and electricity production. though supplies would need to come from elsewhere, such as the usa, columbia, and south africa. the dependence on russian gas is similarly high. 45 percent of the use gas comes from russia is far harder to replace than coal. so far, germany has stood in the way of a complete gas shut off, claiming the economic impact on europe would be far too high. rejoined by an ashburn who's a senior fellow at the atlantic council. welcome to the program. now if the goal of

sanctions is to force vladimir putin to withdraw from ukraine, has the west and its allies been pressing the right buttons? i think for the most part, we've been pressing the right buttons that were able to press the sanction lifted levied on russia, including the ones today, are probably not going to cause what russia to withdraw. they are dialing up the economic pain on the kremlin and the r, exacting some cost, and hopefully that will make the russians think about the invasion. think about whether it's worth continuing and about whether they might be more open to negotiations. that's really the goal here. talk to us about the same trends that particularly target individuals. you mentioned the sanctions that we saw come down today targeting putin's adult daughters, for example. and we've seen in the past, no, russian politicians. oligarchs have been targeted as well. those people who are the closest to vladimir putin. what kind of impact does this have particularly on his

inner circle? is it enough? we seem basically a continuation of the trends that we have been seeing and sanctions policy. that is, people close to the russian leadership. you know, just today we saw the former president, which meant it was sanctioned putin's 2 daughters as to what just meant known daughter's happened sanctions today to family members of the russian meets, which is often how to hide their assets. again, this is probably not going to completely alter the calculus of the russian government, but it will raise the team level on those decision makers and hopefully none of them in a more productive direction. now, we did not see energy sanctions today. that is something that is notable because i think those are the one remaining big step can take. but as the report before this note is the payment european economies from doing that would just be such the policy makers have so far decided not to go down that road of talk about that

a little bit further. we know about the european countries, particularly germany, outlining the pain that it would feel, should it go ahead with a full gas embargo talk to us about how that embargo would harm vladimir putin in the russian economy. so in some ways it's actually a bad deal on both sides, right? so the russian government derives a lot of revenue from gas exports, but it derives most of its revenues from oil imports. where as the european governments, in many cases, particularly germany, are heavily relying on those gas exports. so if europe was to cut off all russian gas imports, it would certainly hurt kremlin, but it would not take away that main source of hard cash, which is oil exports. so i think again that the german leadership is correct when they say they're cutting off the gas exports to europe in sort of a sudden way rather than a long term reorientation would hurt europe more than it would hurt russia. we're

seeing staggered sanctions and that's what we've been seeing since this full scale invasion began. is this really the best approach? ukraine has been calling repeatedly for everything in the kitchen sink to be thrown at russia right away. why wait? at this point we really have thrown pretty much everything except energy at russia . and i think, you know, portraying this as sort of small step by step sanctions is, is not really an accurate picture. the. the economic sanctions that have now been placed on russia are not comparable to sanctions that we placed on any other country. in the last 30 years. we're talking about a level of sanctions that haven't been seen since the period between world war one, world war 2. so in terms of economic pain, again, energy is the one thing that remains on the table. there are reasons why it's not being considered. we've gone about as far as we can with the economic sanctions. path sanctions, as we know, aren't always effective. can you walk us through how the kremlin has used western

sanctions to their advantage inside russia with regard to propaganda, for example? so previous friends of sanctions have in some way, not always backfired, but they have provided the kremlin with a way to excuse the poor performance, the economy. so back in 2014, when sanctions were levied in relation to the recitation of crimea. the sanctions hit, the same time, loyal price is collapsed, but the kremlin was able to quite effectively spin this home to a domestic audience in russia as the west is causing this economic payments. so this is a pattern that we've seen over and over, not just in russia, but in other countries. the sanctions sometimes backfire. again, i should say, the situation that we're seeing with russia now is relatively unique in that it is just as extremely harsh set of sanctions, much closer to a blockade of russian banks than anything that we seen in other countries. in

recent years, ukraine wants more though, does the west have any other realistic options to pressure vladimir putin? western countries, particularly the u. s, have effectively drawn a line at army ukraine and using tools that economic coercion. i think this is the right line. this is the place where we minimize the risks of escalating to a broader regional nuclear war with russia where still helping the koreans as much as we can to resist the russian invasion. the problem is, you know, it's sort of the cupboard is getting a little bare so we can maintain the level of economic pressure and political pressure. we can maintain the flows of weapons that we're doing. increases however, are more difficult because there's not that much left to give there. sure of actual military action. and so, you know, i think what we're going to see is settling into a period of more sort of consistent long term pressure rather than the ratcheting

up. we've been seeing ashford and international security and u. s. foreign policy analyst and a specialist on russia. thank you very much. thanks for having me. ah, sri lanka is facing the worst financial crisis in its history. the economic hardships have ignited a political crisis to as protesters take to the streets demanding the resignation of president golda by a roger boxer and his government barrage up oxide and members of his powerful political family are refusing to step down. people have been struggling to get the basics like food medicine and fuel. some observers say the poorest in society may soon phased elevation. years of government mismanagement and corruption are at the heart of the current crisis. troops patrol the streets outside the parliament and colombo lockdown after unprecedented street demonstrations. again sri lanka,

president go to buy a roger boxer once wildly popular is approval ratings have been undermined by people's anger at ramp and inflation as well as food fuel and medicine shortages. the cupboard panoramic destroyed sri lanka, tourism industry, leading to a lack of foreign exchange for imports. let me get it, but again the a very bad anger and i started a small business recently allow me like, but it's very difficult to maintain us, have added them. there's no gas, there's no kerosene in and that's why people are protesting in the st. help that i need to file of ala it is that the abbey road people are suffering a lot. they reached the end of their patience. one can't say how the people will behave, what decision they'll take. it never go to buy a roger pox. a is backed by sri lanka is powerful sin holla, buddhist majority, who credit him with ending the 26 year long civil war in 2009. the protest threaten

one of the most powerful asian political dynasties might in 2020 my hinder roger pox r. one elections to become sri lanka, prime minister, serving under his brother and president, go to buyer in 2021. another sibling basil was named finance minister tightening the family's grip on power. demonstrators accused the president of mismanaging sri lanka, most painful downturn since independence from britain. in 1948, the protests began last month, but have intensified in the past few days. due to classes between protestors and police, in some instances i

roger pack so revoked to state of emergency after dozens of lawmakers walked out of the ruling coalition. but the troops remain on the streets. there is no certain way out of true, lank is worth political crisis for decades. more than 40 members of the sri lankan legislature quit the government this week, but the president is refusing to resign. so to what extent israel anchor a representative democracy as opposed to a single family state, we put that question to and the guys that going another of the human rights commission of sri lanka. many of the people who are governing coalition has said that the governing position, that they are going to function in parliament as independent. but we still don't know whether when it comes to certain issues that they want to pick up. in which case probably why that is why the opposition is also a way to test it with

a no confidence motion and the opposition is also played. what it seems, a waiting game. for instance. yesterday they made a decision that today and tomorrow they would be there in parliament where they can only cross is the at the point. we know it's going to be knocked down. i'm in a month or 2. that will be a crisis. and only thing on the activity can possibly shut down, but yet i think even the opposition is not putting forward a plan. they are not testing on that. they're being reluctant to take responsibility. so what is being proposed is also what kathy government, that also brings into play on a constitutional question. the question you asked about, you know, democracy. the fact is, this was in a sense, like total democracy, i would say, i mean it was all the electoral authority carrion. it's, i mean back to election,

someone is government. that routine is authoritarian and it's also functions more. it's a family and the functions through dispensing patronage. that was the day and as ever the conversation continues online. you'll find us on twitter. i dw news, i'm abby, quite often for all of us here at dw news. thanks for being with us. bye for now. with

with with doing business with russia for many international companies. that's no longer an option since the war began. they support the sanctions against putin and accept losses in the billions. but some of boycotting the boycott with made engine mixed on the d. w. enter the conflicts own with sarah kelly.

the world has been confronted with horrific images of atrocities against civilians, allegedly committed by russian forces in ukraine. we can find a car, and then paul said, genocide, how should western allies respond? my guess i'm calling in for administer, gabriella. lunch bag. he joins me on the line with 60 minutes on d. w with william how to think on it as well. i and i had known that the boat would be that small. i never would have gone on the trail. i would not have put myself and my parents in that danger. you caught it. the theme of the akita slater would love one

central hospital on the liberty to give them i had a serious problems on a personal level. and i was unable to live there with you want to know their story. info, migrants verified and reliable information for migrants. ah ah ah ah, it's been said that the 1st casualty of war is the truth. getting a clear picture of exactly what is happening in ukraine is far from straight forward. but it's increasingly clear that acts of barbarism.