ah, ah ah, this is need to be a news coming to live from berlin crucial week ahead in the war for ukraine, president below me as the lens he tells ukrainians that russia is preparing for a full scale assault on the east of the country to lansky says ukraine's fate hinges on whether it gets more weapons from the west. also coming up, surveying the devastation after weeks of russian bombardment. russian forces have left the northern city of china. he but residents tell dw, they fear the army might come back. and france is set for a repeat of the 2017 presidential elections,

run all centrist liter amount of one that comes out on top of the 1st round of voting, but he paces a stroll challenge from all right. candidate marine la pet ah hello, i'm terry martin. good to have you with us. eastern areas of ukraine bracing for what they fear will be a new russian defense in a televised address, ukrainian president below to me, as zalinski warned, the russian troops are moving to carry out large scale military operations in eastern ukraine. nozzle is comments come a day after meeting with austria and chancellor, karl ne, hama, who is due to meet latimer putting in moscow today zooms over more would join out by our correspondent, alexandra phenomena who is in kip. alexander, we keep hearing that russia is about to launch

a major offensive in the south and east of the country. how is ukraine preparing for this? well, the cure equaling and government says it isn't anticipating a major russian offensive with the goal of taking control of the don bus region, including of course, at a netscape lohan sca regions. and so we know that the russian forces has been regrouping repositioning and a last week or so. and so they are now according to the general south of the ukrainian armed forces trying to break through the ukrainian defenses. and the strategically important city of is you, and then they are trying to capture the city of my you pull a city that as you know, has been under c, h a for many, many weeks now. and at the goal is self course to cut off for russia to cut off the crenan troops or from any supplies. and as i said, to take full control of that done by 3 jan. we also hear that her happy fighting is

going on in the southern city of michael. i have no russian forces left a trail of destruction. alexandra, when they pulled out of the north, even visiting those areas. what have you seen there? yesterday we went to visit the city of cheney here. that is north of a key if and that was sir under russian, russian seizure for weeks. and at some point even totally cut off from the outside world. and many areas in the city are completely destroyed among than residential areas, schools, a hospital and to we talk to residents there. some of them suffered from hunger with her, as some of them are going on without food for 3 days. and they told us hard wrecking stories, but judge for yourself. let's have a look at our report. the

city of journey, his after weeks of siege and have a shelling by russian forces. we meet svetlana and valentino sapient coin a local hospital where they survived. but were both injured in a nurse strike that hit their house for the ballistic wounded some one logan took less than a 2nd. loosely, sweet. we just heard a whistle your creek, boom. the gym. i screamed get down and covered my son. ceylon like little savoy, even school valentin still has surgeries ahead of him, said lana is doing a little bit better. she shows me pictures of their house before and after the attack. there's done up on why did they attack us? i don't know. we didn't do anything bad where civilians are still the quarry when you learn. the hospital itself was not spirit either bought and roshi load. the hat

of the trauma center here tells us after russian strike his team struggled to keep going through all it before we worked without water and electricity woollen, we would headlamps on and took care of those seeking medical assistance. and also it was very hard on me, but we stayed here and did what was necessary. raleigh williams, social wellness, and the situation worse than when russian forces completely encircled the city. residents tell us journey heath and you are to weeks of russian siege and just barely came through. water and electricity were almost completely cut off. no age could come in. local officials say at times the city buried up to 100 people in a single day. some of them were killed by russian troops. others died because they could not reach the hospital due to heavy shelling in their local morgue. edward slept place using refrigerator trucks for the bodies that still

needs to be identified or pick up by relatives. elizabeth or they were you follow? many people left the country to escape the fighting is that they are not in ukraine for them and cannot get back to bury their relatives came from warner. so that's why there are still many bodies here to fill out the right with you was that would be those who come here to claim their loved ones are overwhelmed by make ego's family. she was a husband and father, a brother, shut dead by russian soldiers when he was the best buy that he could have, i was still proud of him. and now something this terrible has happened to death and destruction is all that is left after the withdrawal of russian forces from jenny heath. and what those were survived. the most is that the russian army might return . it abused alexander from nomine reporting their now

to france were a manuel. no. com has emerged as clear front runner after sundays, 1st round of boating in the countries presidential election. interior ministry figures give mark aren't just over 27 percent of the boat. as far right challenger marine le pen received just over 23 percent of contenders. now go through to the 2nd round. on april 24th. 10 other candidates for across the political spectrum had been eliminated. mccomb hold off a stronger than expected showing against the pan who dramatically narrowed the president's lead in opinion polls prior to sunday's vote. he may have won the 1st round, put for a man with mccall. this was no time for victory. live down don't be themed, nothing is decided if we barely a month ago, my combat like a shoe in instead the incumbent president ended up in the fight of his political

life with critics accusing him on focusing on global crises rather than the ones at home at doing okay, but the a to all those who who chose to abstain or to vote on the extreme geezer, because i want to convince you in the coming days of any that our project is a much stronger respons sorted out of the far right lot. and there scare mancha, it would defeat. you don't, you can count on, you know, my grown anger over rising inflation created a laid opening for the populace. marine the pen as you softener image as a 4 right nationalist and re cast herself as a champion, the trucking household. now that have been a dual during this 1st round, the french people have clearly wanted to arbitrate a fundamental choice between 2 opposite visions of the future. either the division, the injustice and the disorder, imposed by men when my call for the benefit of

a few or the gathering of the french people around social justice and protection, guaranteed by fraternal framework around the age old idea of nation and people millionaire. the next you a defense with my call headed for potentially bruising run off. he's hoping to stave off the threat from the right with the help of more mainstream parties but his biggest boost could come from an unlikely backer. far left leaders on luke millersville, who came in 3rd with over 5th of the boat coming down on that we will never lose our trust in democracy. so you must not give a boat to mrs le pen name. we must not give one boat to mrs. le, pam, then in an election that's live stream celebrate. and traditional ruling parties flatline. the battle lines

for francis future have been drawn. in our correspondence, sonya pony cars covering this store and joined us now from paris. sonia president, a call has only narrowly won the 1st round in this election. is it clear what his strategy will be to triumph in the runoff? good morning, terry. well, you're right, i mean, he not only one in that 1st round and opinion polls actually predicting a really tight race in the 2nd round, just to result in victory margin for him. so i think macro really has his work cut out. he now will have to fight for every wat and he will have to hit the ground running a ground, right. he will have to hit the ground running, sorry, on the campaign trail. and this is something that he hasn't really done so far, you know, he entered the selection race very late, literally just days a week before the 1st round. and he hasn't really held any debates with all debating, you know, economic and social policy policies with his wives,

even at the time when one of the key concerns for french bottles is the rising cost of living. so his health, very few campaign rallies and his team now i think, is really scrambling the trying to set up t v appearances set up a few rallies. and i think another way of he's going to his line of attack against marina pain is now going to be to try and portray her as somebody who's very pro protein given her former links or the kremlin. you don't, she got a long from russian bank of last election and all to portray hers. anti eel given halston the t 2 e with students. you mentioned to marina pern because main rival the far right candidate to she gained massive momentum in recent weeks. what's her message to french voters? what i thing bring the pen has, you know, really kind of torn down her body's a radical image. and she's kind of really pitched herself as this credible, moderate candidate. and she's really deflected attention from, you know,

her anti immigration agenda from nationalism and french identity. and she's really kind of hit the campaign trail. she's criss crossed the country, you know, hit a markets and every small town and city really been talking to waters about the one thing that is really exciting them. and that is the rising cost. cost of living, rising inflation, energy prices. she's really been appealing to workers on the right and left to, you know, kind of she's promising to create more jobs, put more money in their pockets cap prices. and i think that has resonated with motors. what role sonya, if any, did the ukraine war play in the 1st round of these lectures? what i think the one ukraine did play a role in the initial weeks of the invasion. you know, we had macro very visible on the european stage, a spearheading of diplomatic efforts, really doing shuttle diplomacy meeting the russian president and other international leaders. and i think that gave him a bump in the polls initially, you know, voters approved of his handling of the crisis. he was seen as, you know,

a wartime precedent. he was seen as a safe bet of hands, but i think that effect has one off. i think unfortunately, people who are in france, i'm more worried about the economic consequences off the war than the war itself. because because of rising inflation, rising energy prices are and people really struggling to pay their bills. shante, thanks very much our correspondence on your father car in paris. check on a few other stories making headlines around the world today. around 20 migrants were rescued off the spanish island of ground, canaria on sunday night that the area has come under is become the main destination in spain for african migrants trying to reach europe. a local n g o says more than 4400 people died at sea trying to reach spain last year. in a surprise reversal, twitter has announced that billionaire, ellen musk will not be joining the company's board. asked,

sad must last week revealed he had become the social media platforms biggest shareholder and was expected to take a seat on the board. but twitters, c, e. o said the appointment would not take place without explanation. australian prime minister scott morrison has called an election for may 21st, the campaign is likely to be fought over the cost of living climate change and political integrity morrison's conservatives are currently trailing the opposition . labor, in opinion polls after 9 years in power to believe against the backdrop of the war in ukraine. germany is marking the anniversary of the liberation. the book bought concentration camp at the end of world war 2, holocaust survivors and jewish leaders gathered to remember nazi crimes that were carried out. we're committed there during the holocaust american forces liberated the camp. an april 1945 representatives of russia and bel roost were asked not to attend the memorial after a russian attack, and ukraine killed

a holocaust survivor. you're watching dw news from berlin up next. it's world stories taking you through the week in reports. i'm terry martin from me and all of us here at the w. thanks for watching. i. d w's crime fighters are back to little africa. most successful radio drama series continues them all episodes are available online. and of course you can share and this goes on d, w, africa's facebook page and other social media platforms, crime fighters, tune in now. and we're interested in the.