[000:00:00;00] news with this d. w. news coming to you live from berlin. a crucial week ahead in the war on ukraine . president laudermill zelinski tells ukrainians that russia is preparing for a full scale assault on the east of the country. so lansky says ukraine's fate hinges on whether it gets more weapons from the west. also coming up, surviving the devastation after weeks of russian bombardment. russian forces have

left the northern city of chinese. but residents tell dw, they fear the army might come back and press a set for a repeat of the 2017 presidential election, run all centrist leader, manuel. my point comes out on top in the 1st round of voting, but the pace is a strong challenge from all right. candidates marine la pen. ah hello, i'm terry martin. thanks for joining us. eastern areas of ukraine or bracing for what they fear will be a new russian offensive. ukrainian president vladimir lansky warned that russian troops are moving to carry out large scale military operations in eastern new crane . russian bombardments struck various sites across ukraine through the weekend. and neat pro ukraine's 4th largest city missiles destroyed the local airport and wounded several people. meanwhile,

investigators continued to exude bodies from mass graves around the capital. keith, ukraine. authorities say more than 1200 bodies have been found so far. following the withdrawal of russian forces from the area or corresponded alexandra from nomine is covering this story, and joins us now from here. alexander, we keep hearing that russia is about to launch a major offensive in the east and south of the country. how is ukraine preparing for this? ukraine is strengthening its defenses in the east and the south of the country sending more troops there in a clear anticipation of a major russian offensive there. the authorities are also urging civilians 3rd to leave as long as they can, according to the general staff of the ukrainian armed forces. sir,

the russian army is trying to break the defenses of the strategically important city of ian. and they are trying to capture the city of my you pull that as you know, has been under siege for many weeks now. and a clear goal here seems to be for the russians to take control of that done by her area of the don barza region, including her donnette sca didn't ask and lo, hunter, cur regents. russian forces have left a trail of destruction. alexandra in areas that they've withdrawn from in the north . north of tive, you've been there. you've been traveling different to different places there. what have you seen? we went for instance, to the city of chinese. if yesterday, the city was under russian siege for many weeks at, for some period of time, it was completely cut off from the outside world. it people there told us they didn't have water. no,

it left electricity. and they suffered from hunger. some went on for days without eating any think. many areas of the city are completely destroyed, just called a hospital residential houses. but judge for yourself, let's have a look in our report from trinity heath. the city of journey heave after weeks of siege and have his shelling by russian forces. we meet svetlana and valentino sapient coin a local hospital where they survived, but were both injured in an air strike that hit their house for the ballistic wounded some while ago took less than a 2nd. loosely, sweet. we just heard a whistle here greet gloom. lea shem one i screamed get down was uncovered. my son, feeling like little savoy, even school valentin still has surgeries ahead of him. svetlana 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 over? i don't know, we didn't do anything bad. where civilians are still the quinn, islam. the hospital itself was not spirit either bought and rushed low. the hat of the trauma center here tells us after rush and strike his team struggled to keep going through all before we worked without water and electricity luma would headlamps on and took care of those seeking medical assistance. also, it was very hard on me, but we stayed here and did what was necessary. roland, woo, social medicine and the situation worse than when russian forces completely encircled the city. residents tell us journey heath and you are to weeks of rush and siege. and just burly came through. water and electricity were almost

completely cut off. no aid 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 the local morgue, edward sled, please using refrigerator trucks. what a body is that still needs to be identified or pickup by relatives doable author. they will, you follow many people left the country to escape the fighting. they are not in ukraine for them and cannot get back to bury their relatives from wilma. so that's why there are still many bodies here to preserve the right. listen, you will go with those who come here to claim their loved ones are overwhelmed. like we've met egos, family. he was a husband, a father, a brother, shut debt by russian soldiers. whenever he was the best buy there, you could have,

i was so proud of him. and now something this terrible has happened to his mother wouldn't. death and destruction is all that is left off to the withdrawal of russian forces from trinity heath. and what those who survived the most is that the russian army might return. alexandra, given the atrocities that were committed in areas under seized by the russians, is the ukrainian government still willing to negotiate with moscow on ending this war? yes, they are. and the ukrainian president has made it clear repeatedly how hard it is to think about resuming the talk, sir, is to think about sitting together with russian representatives off to what happened in boucher board young coach, any heath other places. however, he also said that it's important to talk because what the country needs is, of course

a ceasefire and everyone here once the war 2 and alexander, thank you very much for your reporting. our correspond, alexander phenomena there in keith. his mother stories saw related to the war in ukraine. austrian chancellor, karl nay. huh. his heading to moscow to discuss the conflict and ukraine with russian president vladimir putin. the meeting follows a weekend visit, buying a home a to the ukrainian capital t f. as a military, militarily neutral country, austria is hoping to act as a mediator in the ongoing crisis. ukraine's president, a lot of his lensky spoke by phone with german chancellor of schultz on sunday to discuss further sanctions against russia. lansky said he was glad that germany had strengthened its support for ukraine, but continued to lobby sholtes to put a ban on russian energy. importance. and world banks as ukraine's economy is set to

shrink by 45 percent this year. the war has forced around half of the countries, businesses to close and exports to plummet. will bank calling for massive financial support for ukraine? ukrainian couple who were separated by the war have reunited in the v to get married constantine state in ukraine to fight. while his bride county, lina fled the country, the newly weds planned to separate again after their sunday ceremony with alina returning to germany, while constantine stays to defend ukraine. hundreds of children had been killed and wounded since the start of the war in ukraine, and many thousands more have been traumatized by the violence. they've witness. but there's only limited capacity for professional treatment with many facilities destroyed or evacuated because of russian attacks. dw correspondent young philip charles visited the children's psychiatric clinic in the western city of libby and

spoke to some of the young patients there. when words fail, pictures sometimes help. 4 weeks levied largest psychiatric clinic has been treating more and more children with severe water trauma. thus elaina comes from hard keith. she saw rockets destroy her home toned and kill many people. she was evacuated, but her parents remain in the embattled city. what are you drawing right now? this is the ukrainian flag way. i your drawing the ukrainian flag. and because we will win the therapist say that's drawing helps many children to process their experiences. they often cannot talk about it. but even small children perceive the terrible things around, then i will movies. will you? my parents and grandparents often try to gently explain to the children what is going on. well then sometimes they act like it's all just an exercise of a game or something. but then the children reply, no, we live in a war. this is a real war. i'm here again, watch hertz,

the doctor most the children are constantly searching for explanations for the horror. and many begin to doubt themselves. even begin to do sometimes the kids think that this has something to do with their behavior. that it just happened because they did something wrong with what did we then try to explain to them that they live in a free, independent country. we didn't break any borders, we didn't behave aggressively towards other countries. so it's not their fault at all. you can even come across to them. the children often have sleeping disorders which swaying since become a prophetic. many ask every day if they can ever go back to their old lights. i'm so sorry about my country. i used to live in such a beautiful city. now everything is destroyed exxon us t and tries to reach out to the children with gains and music. and they are often amazed about the resilience of the young patients. whenever this leave the time,

sometimes we ask ourselves who is treating whom old, are we treating them or they treating us timley? it works in both directions. usually they give us so much of a if they weren't with us, we would be much worse off more than our bohack with kilo santa has learned through her work that dr. sort of gift children false hope. the situation is bad. and unfortunately, the most innocent of all, we'll probably have to live with this for a long time, a spring and pete walsh, here he is. ukraine country director for the charities, save the children and joins us from live eve, a pizza, thanks. ring with us. i understand you spent the past couple weeks in the embattled east of the country. what did you find there? yeah, thank you very much. yes, i was indeed i was in a city called mich alive ah, where just previously the night before, i'm at the children's referral hospital. i, at least 10 missiles had hit in around the hospital grounds and had made

significant damage to the children's operating theatre. at the time of this attack, there was a 9 year old and a 15 year old girl. and they were receiving a trauma surgery from a previous attack. one girl had was having a bullets removed from her all the other was having trouble removed from the stomach when the missiles came in and hit the theater directly. ah, we are aware the both these children ended up in intensive care, but i can please the, please to tell you today the both children now fortunately stable and recovering, it this sounds truly horrific. the, the war is hard for adults to cope with pete, what sort of special challenges do children face in dealing with it? well, any war is war against children. the children are the most innocent when it comes to war. and they need, you know, additional support, particularly health care. but we've already heard from w, h o,

that 103 health facilities and doctors have been damaged or destroyed. and we also need access to learning soon to know to continue with their development. and we've also heard from the ministry of education that now 928 schools have been damaged or destroyed. i think you would agree with me a school should not be a place of fear, injury of death should be a place of learning, a place where children can be protected and developed. right now some predict that this war could drag on for a long time. what can be done, paid to better protect children in ukraine, and prepare them for what's still to come? well, 1st and foremost, say the children and humans are upon us. call for an immediate cease fire of the hostilities of this war at this war against children. and begin the process to enable access for all human rights aaron partners to get to these areas the hard to reach your don ask law husk, you know, your mar, apple ah,

your cock give. so that we can get is immediate age that people need now to save their lives. but also to start the early stage of recovery. much of ukraine's basic infrastructure, including health and education is being destroyed. as you mentioned. how is that impacting the ability to provide a central care for children in the situation? this war is having a devastating impact on ah, the countries ability to support children in their essential services that he needs such as health care and education at the gut ministry of education has prioritized ah, online learning. but of course, for online learning, you need access access to the internet and access to devices to enable that online learning to occur. and that is certainly one area that say the children's look at it to you is formed to provide that access. but also the device, the name of the online learning. he thank you very much. that was pete wal shaw

country director for ukraine for save the children. thank you. now to france, we're a manuel mc con has emerged as the clear front runner after sunday's 1st round of boating in countries. presidential election, interior ministry figures give my can't just over 27 percent of the boat is all right. challenger marine le pen receive just over 23 percent. boat contenders now go through to the 2nd round which will take place on april 24th. at 10 other candidates from across the political spectrum have been eliminated. on the call pulled off a stronger than expected, showing against the pen who dramatically narrowed the president's lead in opinion polls prior to sundays, low vote. he may have won the 1st round, but for a manual mac crone. this was no time for a victory lap. down don't be seen. nothing is decided if we

barely a month ago, micron looks like a shoe in. instead, the incumbent president ended up in the fight for his political life. with critics accusing him of focusing on global crises rather than the ones at home at 3 o'clock, but the a to all those who chose to abstain or to vote on the extreme server. 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 growing anger of a rising inflation created an opening for the populace marine le pen as she softened her image as a far right nationalist and re cost herself as a champion for struggling households. now that have been a duly 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 middle in there. the next you a defer with macaroni headed for a 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 baccha far left lita jean luc melon shone. who came in 3rd with over a 5th of the vote. coming down on that we will never lose her 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 saw the extremes celebrate and traditional parties, flat line, the battle lines for france, the future have been drawn a spring in our correspondence, sonya fall nica here in paris, sonia president, con, has normally narrowly won the 1st round in this election is it clear what his strategy will be to come out on top in the runoff. you're right, i mean he's not only one in the 1st round and that 2nd that the run off of is predicted to be a very tight race. and i think for macro, what this means is now he really needs to get into camping more and fight for every vote. really hit the campaign trail. and this is actually what he's been accused of . not doing so far. you know, he entered the slate very, that's really very late. he said he was a little preoccupied with the war in ukraine. he's run a very muted campaign. he's hotly debated policies with his rivals. i think all that now will need to change his. his team is already scrambling to set up a few rallies and,

and t v appearances and their strategy with rival marine le pen seems to be, you know, attacking her as being a kind of pull protein candidate given her pos links to the kremlin and portraying her as anti eel marine le pen, ah, the main candidate, the far right candidate, a main candidate there mccaul will be up against her. in 2 weeks, she gained massive momentum in recent weeks. what's her message to french voters? you're right, marine. the pen has really torn down her bodies. radical image. she's, you know, pitched herself as a more moderate candidate. she's really deflected attention away from kind of nationalist rhetoric, issues of french national identity and anti immigration agenda. and she's really kind of focused on, on the one issue that is really exercising french motors. and that is the rising cost of living. you know, she's crystal, crisscross the country. metal workers on the right and left promises to create more

jobs, put more money in their pockets, cap prices, and all the popular kids littered with waters. you mentioned the ukraine war that mccaul has been focusing on that a bed. what role did the ukraine war play as an election topic or in this campaign? well, i think the war certainly hadn't impact in the initial weeks off. the russian invasion in a macro was spearheading european diplomatic efforts. he was speaking to international leaders speaking to let me put in all that, give him a lot of visibility on. i think he also got a bump in the bulls because of that. what does he know approving of his handling of the crisis? he was seen as, as a statesman as a safe bet of hands to lead the country to the prices. well, i think that effect has really one off. i think the mean worry for, for walters in france is really the, the canada consequences of the war. the facing rising inflation high energy prices struggling to pay bills. so i think the economic consequences of the war are

greater than the actual war and the possibility of his commission. now, a con, only has a like a 4 percent shot. he came out with about a 4 percent difference and the points between him and marine la pan as the next, our closest candidate in this 1st run around of, of, of, of voting. so there's a real possibility that marina pan could win. how well, how would that change french well, i think marina been has a very, an o anti immigration agenda, a very nash way kind of nationalist vision of sovereignty. and if you look at her black form, you know, she really wants to put limits on immigration. she's talked about a kind of french 1st policy when it comes to housing and jobs. she's talked about banning the muslim a headscarf in public places. she wants to also curtail the right to asylum,

which would violate frances international commitments. and the french media. you have actually been seeing that, you know, some proposals would actually involve making changes to the constitution. so i think she means a serious threat. shortly. thank very much our correspondent shawnee phonic out there in paris. you're watching. did up a new still to come. the dutch city of amsterdam is famous for its tradition of freedom and is now welcoming not just ukrainian refugees, but also russians playing the increasingly oppressive conditions in their home. now is catch up on some stories, making headlines around the world. the in pakistan, lawmakers are set to elect shabazz sharif leader of the center is pakistan. muslim league as prime minister jerry is the youngest, younger brother, a former prime minister now was sharif. there were protests after cricket, cricket star turned politician iran khan was ousted in

a new confidence both on sunday. and his prize reversal, twitter has announced that billionaire ellen mosque will not be joining the companies. board mosque was recently rebuilt to be the social media platforms biggest shareholder, but twitter, c, e, o said, mosque had decided not to take a seat on the board as expected. no explanation was offered. russia's war and ukraine has caused millions of ukrainians to flee their homeland, as well as tens of thousands of russians opposed to their governments. policies. and many of the russians choosing to go abroad or among the countries most talented . one of the top destinations in europe is amsterdam, with its long reputation, proceed guarding freedom of expression. the hail unlocked st sign in amsterdam is bedecked in ukraine's national colors. the dutch are proud of their traditions as

a free society. that's why many here are happy to help you craning refugees and russians who oppose the war. a publishing house in the east of the city houses the editorial offices of het power all the newspaper was established in the 2nd world war. as a way to resist the german occupation head parole is now welcoming colleagues from the moscow times an english and russian language online newspaper. dutch publisher dirksen, were founded at 30 years ago. now he wants to bring his journalists to amsterdam. but many of the young staff don't have the documents they need for the trip to europe. and your to authorities are getting more and more difficult to give passports to especially young men because they want to keep all the young men in the country. um, so, so of our journalists are unfortunately stuck. those who made it prefer not to publish their names or show their faces to protect their families. back home. since russia's new media law came into effect,

independent journalism is nearly impossible. the editor in chief of the moscow time says the only option is to work in exile. not a goal of such us. our voice that of independent media has of course become less prominent compared to state run media. because many of our publications have been shut down. but those who want information and look for it can find us middle school so many russian journalists opposition. supporters and artists oppose putins war. like august minova, former star soloist at moscow's bolshoi theater, who is now rehearsing at the amsterdam national opera. if i need to speak, what they think is right to speak, and if when it through leave to content for that i will live to country later this month. smear nova will make her debut as the prima ballerina for the dutch national

ballet. or you're watching g w news, just reminder the top story we're following for you this our ukranian president, bellagio zalinski is warning that russian troops are preparing to carry out large scale operations in the east of the country. authorities say they have been zoomed more than 1200 bodies from mass graves around the capital key of following the withdrawal of russian forces from the reach. you're watching dw news. our science show to more to day is up next. i'm terry martin. thanks for watching.

with a joy ride through fascinating worlds into uncharted deb this our guides know their way around a strictly scientist extra to some pretty wacky places.

curiosity is required to borrow today. next on d. w ah did in the right wing extremists? i suggested again world maggie and company rate and burned in south africa. people with disabilities more likely to lose their jobs. in the pandemic black lives matter. shine a spotlight on racially motivated police violence, same sex marriage is being legalized in more and more countries, discrimination and inequality are part of everyday life. for many, we ask why? because life is diversity. to make up your own mind. d. w. lead for mines. how long does

a or an eternity time? it can be measured precisely. and yet each person experiences it differently as if there are different forms of type type a phenomenon. a dimension and illusion. about time starts april 14 on d, w with not all green roofs are equal. we look at how research is trying to boost their benefits. and dw science program is off to gonna to meet women learning how to best create a backyard vegetable garden. we also take a closer look at the head aside, glad to say too good for bombing,

but bad for people. ah,