don't know their story in so migrants verified and reliable information for my grants with ah, this is dw news life from berlin, france votes in the 1st round of a tight presidential race. president emmanuel marconas, hoping for a 2nd 5 year term. but polls put his far right rival marina pent only a couple of points behind. and ukraine and russia agree on humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians. the exodus is still growing, but thousands of people are trapped as ukraine braces for a renewed russian onslaught in the east.

ah, and william bluecross welcome to the program. france is voting in the 1st round of its presidential election turn out is down slightly from the 2017 vote. with just under 2 thirds of voters taking part, president emmanuel marconas facing a strong challenge from the far right leader, marine la pet, a manual my call casting his ballot alongside his wife and fellow citizens. franklin pro europe centrist leader, hopes to become the 1st president to be re elected in 20 years. they are 12 candidates, but my comb, fiercest challenger, is that by rights many new pen. she has managed to close the gap in the last month to just a few points behind my call in the polls. the soaring cost of living and the war in

ukraine had turned a seemingly easy victory for my call into a tight race. the conflict is on the minds of many voters. i would quote monroe to michael no question and out to buy that. even if there are lots of issues with what has been done, the situation where they couldn't wanted to have somebody very strong to defend the european status. but many in france also criticize the president saying he hasn't done enough to help people cope with inflation, measured poor it's purchasing power because we're seeing that with the rise and gas prices. more and more french people are having difficulty getting through the month to more bearing the shock upset both my call and the pen. we'll go through into the ran off in 2 weeks time. it's get more now from d. w. correspond marina strauss, who joins me from

a polling station in central paris. good day to you, marina. there's a lot of talk about the turn out polling stations like where you're at, how energized the voter seem, where you are. i just went inside this polling station or william, you concede behind me, it's actually a very nice, very picturesque town hall here in the center of paris. and officials told me that during the day, a lot of people showed up somehow or had to wait for 45 minutes to be able to walk . so here at the border obsession was not very high, but of course this is at the center of paris and this is not representative when it comes to the whole country. i also talked to a couple of people here. you can see that people are standing are still standing in line because this office will only close at 8 p. m tonight. so they still have an hour to cast their roads. and one man i think was especially interesting. he said he does not even know yet if you will avoid for the far left or shore. luke mel

alshaun or for the centrist incubator or president emmanuel, my car. but he certainly does not want to vote for far. i'd marooned a pen and he said that he is very afraid that she might become the next president of france. you mentioned that paris isn't a representative of the rest. the country is also not representative in terms of support for those candidates. you just mentioned, marine le pen has been closing in on ma crone in recent polls. what is her appeal to people around the country? it's the 3rd time a marine lupin is running for president in france. and as in the recent years, she has tried to become to come across as more moderate. so am she a she gave in to use said to, to french, me down new recently talking about her cats and her personal life to be, to come across. it's more accessible and she campaigned she, she travelled through france and shook hands and talked to people and said that

she's, she's focusing her campaign on their purchasing power on the rising costs of rising a cost of living. so a many people see her in our some viable option. and she's also kind of lucky because there's an even more radical candidates. it makes it more in the race. and he is even hurt his views that even more radical than hers. so in comparison to him, she comes across as moderate, but we have to be clear here. her policies are radical. our extreme. if she became the next president of france, she would take a harsh stance on immigration. she would also take a harsh sense on immigrants, a people with immigrant background living in france. she for example, said that she would a fine a women wearing a headscarf in public. and she would also be a very difficult partner for brussels for the european union. because she has, there you are a skeptic fuse and she would also be very difficult partner for a for, for francis same of germany. and quickly about marcus,

he is still the favored to win both his 1st round and ultimately the presidency and the 2nd round. what are the kind of issues that he's been looking at in his 1st term that voters seem to be responding to? well i'm some people are still want still once you vote for my crawl because they say he's some say he was a good leader during the 5 years. for example, he tried to talk to you of letting a 2 teen a still death. so try to try to convince him to end his war in ukraine. he's a respected leader at the european stage at the world states. that's what many people are with some people. his voters also see here in france, i did have your correspond marina trust there in paris for us. thanks very much. we're going to have more from marina and the whole g, w team in paris with live coverage of the early preliminary results of the 1st round of the french presidential election in just about an hour's time. so stay

here for that is going to be on the w news at 8 o'clock central european time. now, over in ukraine, ukraine and russia have agreed on humanitarian quarters to evacuate thousands of civilians. eastern regions of ukraine are bracing for a new russian offensive there, or the 100000 people are believed trapped in the city of maria paul, which has been under intense bombardment for weeks. local officials have said as many as 5000 civilians may have been killed in that city. ukrainians are fleeing the eastern donvan region, which has been partially controlled by russian back separatists since 2014. now satellite images show a convoy of hundreds of russian military vehicles, heading for the don, this region, and that's making the evacuation of civilians all the more urgent. and our correspondent rebecca readers has seen what some of that evacuation looks like.

rebecca, thanks for joining us. what is, 1st of all, the latest from lou lou, hans that region as part of don bas in the east? well, we are starting to see come to fruition what we've been expecting, the regrouping of russian troops and the, the pivot towards to focus on the south east of the kind of ukraine and that south and the ac, including lou, hans and, and yet can you just mentioned the hans it's, it's prompted a more, a stronger effort to get people out of their hands governor has, has basically told everyone to get out while they still can i, unfortunately not everyone is hating that warning. there were still apparently 30 percent of people staying in law. hans, i actually met a guy was reporting down in the region close near there. and i spoke to a gentleman at the train station and he, he broke down and he says he was describing to me that some of his friends from the la hans and, and yes region were actually choosing to stay that already lost everything in the

battle in 2014 and they weren't gonna leave again. they said if the russians come in they just kind of fight them and he was really obviously very upset. i mean everyone has seen the pictures from are you paul, as you just mentioned, and also around keith in boucher and nobody wants those kind of atrocities happening to their towns and villages. william rector, you're also in the pro, another city from central eastern ukraine and it's become something of a hub, a for internally displaced ukrainians. what did you see there? well, in the pro is a transport hub in that region. it's services the south and the south east. we were at the train station doing some reporting yesterday, and we saw thousands of people evacuating thousands of people have already come through there and they are expecting thousands more. the situation of course, was pretty tense yesterday because it was just shortly after a day after the bombing at the train station in crime tours,

which was just 200 or so kilometers from ne pro. so authorities were on really high alert there yesterday really worried that's a similar attack might take place there. a lot of the people i spoke to just work had come from the, the regions that were speaking about those. la hans kind of done yet regions, but they just had no idea where they were going to end up. there is a shell to their people are providing support for the people that come through there, but they're not really able to stay in the pro either. the, the mayor of ne pro has ordered all women and children to leave the area because they're worried that the fighting is going to also reach that city. it's difficult to imagine just what people are facing, as they're trying to find some semblance of safety in ukraine. and you saw some of that traveling back to lose eve, where you are now by train, which a lot of people are using. what kind of experience should you have, what, what kind of people did you come across on that journey? well, it was an incredibly bittersweet experience. really. i mean, you see a relief in some faces better. on the other side,

you see the sadness that having to leave people behind you. so we saw, you know, people, we were on the train with waiving to their loved ones on the platform who were both relieved that their relatives were getting to safety. but obviously not knowing when or if they're going to see them again. so obviously, i know there was a lot of sadness on the train. the journey itself was relatively normal. i'm in ukraine. railways have been doing an amazing job of keeping this country going. the civilian effort, both by getting aid in to places that desperately need it, as well as bringing people out of those hotspot areas. there were a couple of amendments if you will. the blinds needed to be closed for the entire journey at night when the soon as the sun went down, the blinds had to be closed so that you're less visible from the sky. and the train also travels at a much slower pace. it took almost twice as long as the normal journey because if anything does happen, you have any kind of shelling or anything like that. the tri needs to be able to stop to evacuate. the passengers. credible details. they're rebecca. thank you so much. rebecca of rebecca ritter speaking to us from movies in western. great. and

let's get some more developments in the war there. austrian chancellor con emma is to meet the russian leader vladimir putin in moscow. o be the 1st european leader to do so. since the invasion of ukraine, they huh has been in keith where he offered humanitarian aid and political support . a grave containing at least 2 civilians has been uncovered in wood, sofa village, near keith. it's the latest burial site identified since russian force withdrew from the area to concentrate on eastern ukraine. the airport in negro ukraine's 4th biggest city has been badly damaged by russian missile attacks. that's according to the local governor. thick columns of smoke to be seen rising around the airborne and against the backdrop of the war and ukraine. germany is

marking the anniversary of the liberation of the book involved concentration camp at the end of world war 2, holocaust survivors and jewish leaders gathered to remember nazi crimes that were committed there during the holocaust american forces liberated the camp in april 1945 representatives of russia and beller roost were asked not to attend memorial after a russian attack and ukraine killed a holocaust survivor. our political correspondent, thomas sparrow, filed this report from the camp. the atmosphere is always heavy, always difficult in full manase concentration becomes like this one micron by 280000 people from all over europe was sent here by the nazis 56000 people were killed and the atmosphere to day is even more difficult because events here had been by have been overshadowed by the wool in ukraine. camp survivors

have condemned the russian invasion of ukraine. and in fact, russian government officials were an invited to ceremonies in here in book invite. this also has to do with the death of bodies romance, jenko, 96 year old. he survived full concentration camps including foreign vide, but was killed in the ukrainian city of hockey in march. therefore, it is particularly important that participants here today in book and abide, renewed a pledge for a world in peace and freedom watching the w news. here's a reminder of our main stores. france is voting in the 1st round of its presidential election polls, but president emanuel macklin ahead for show the far right challenge marine la pen closing the gap and ukraine and russia have agreed on humanitarian quarters to evacuate thousands of civilians. eastern regions of ukraine are braced for an upper

or an expected new russian offensive watch dw news coming up. next, we have world stories, reports from the besieged, ukrainian city of maria, and we can always get the latest on our website to w dot com. and of course, instagram and twitter after w news. i said, we're going to have those poll results for you. initial poll results from the french election at 8 o'clock central european time join us for that and sees ah, so he wants to know what makes the german here just in a way. i'm not even know how to work my own car and everyone with later holes and everything today getting, are you ready to meet the german, then join me, rachel stuart on d. w. not just another day. so much is happening

all at once. we take.