with mm ah ah, this is dw news coming to you live from berlin, a crucial week ahead in the war, and ukraine president below the me zalinski tells ukrainians that russia is preparing for a full scale assault on the east of the country lands. he says, you cranes, fate hinges on whether it gets more weapons from the west plus surveying the devastation after weeks of russian bombardment. russian forces have left the northern city of china. he but residents tell d w, they fear the army might come back and press is set for

a repeat of the 2017 presidential election, ronald centrist leader, emanuel. my con, comes out on top in the 1st round of voting, but he faces a strong challenge from fall. right. kennedy, marine le pet ah hello m terry martin. good to have you with us. eastern areas of ukraine, or bracing for what they fear will be a new russian offensive. ukraine's president below them is the lensky warned that russian troops are carry or moving to carry out large scale military operations in the east of the country. russian bombardment struck various sites across ukraine through the weekend and denise pro, the country's 4th largest city missiles destroyed the local airport and wounded several people. meanwhile, investigators continued to examine bodies from mass graves around the capital.

keith, ukraine. authorities say more than 1200 bodies have been found. so for following the withdrawal of russian forces from the areas or corresponded. alexandra from nomine is covering this story, and joins us now from kia. alexander, we keep hearing that russia is about to launch a major offensive in easton 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 generalist, half 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 seach for many weeks now. and a clear goal here seems to be for the russians to take control of that done by sir area of the don barza region. including her donnette sca didn't ask and lo, hunter, co regent's, russian forces have left a trail of destruction arctic sondra in areas that they've withdrawn from in the north north of t. if you've been there, you've been traveling different to different places there. what have you seen? we went to, for instance, to, at 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. if 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 anything. many areas of the city are completely destroyed. schools or hospital residential

houses, but judge for yourself. let's have a look in our report from chinese heath the city of journey, his after weeks of siege and have his shelling by russian forces. we meet svetlana and valentino sapient coin a local hospital with they survived, but were both injured in a nurse strike that hit their house for the ballistic wounded. some one lord took less than a 2nd. loosely sweet. we just heard a whistle your creek, boom. lea symbol i screamed get down was uncovered. my son, fill in the grill some more. 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 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 russia load. the hat of the trauma center here tells us after russian strike his team struggled to keep going with you all before we worked without water and electricity 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 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 their local morgue, edward slept place using refrigerated truck. what a 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. that they are not in ukraine for them and cannot get back to bury their relatives escape from wilma. so that's why there are still many bodies here to preserve the right. listen. it was that would be those who come here to claim their loved ones are overwhelmed by grief. mac ego's family. he was a husband, a father, a brother, shut debt by russian soldiers when he was the best buy that he could have. i was so proud of him and now something this terrible has happened to us mother wouldn't . death and destruction is all that is left after 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 after what happened in boucher brody and catch 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 european union. foreign ministers are meeting today in luxembourg to discuss ways to expand their support for ukraine. you foreign affairs commissioners. also, burrell has proposed a further 500000000 euros and weapons, and other military equipment. ministers were also expected to discuss more sanctions and plan to phase out russian. oil imports faster. you announced a ban on russian coal last friday agreement to hold oil and gas imports any time soon. could prove harder that he's out with his mother headlines on the war in ukraine. austrian chancellor, karl ne huh. is heading to moscow to discuss the conflict and ukraine with russian president vladimir putin. the meeting follows a weekend visit by ne, hama to the crating capital t f, as a militarily neutral country. austria is hoping to act as a mediator in the ongoing crisis. ukrainian president laudermill zalinski spoke by

phone with german chancellor of sholtes on sunday to discuss further sanctions against russia. lance he said he was glad that germany had strengthened support of ukraine, but continued to lobby sholtes to put a ban on russian energy. him was gonna let him you might. and the world bank says ukraine's economy is set to shrink by 45 percent this year. war, his force around half of the countries, businesses to close and exports to plummet. the world bank is calling from massive financial support for ukraine in france. emmanuel mich home hes emerged as to clear front runner after sundays, 1st round of boating in the countries presidential election. interior ministry figures give mccaul just over 27 percent of the boat. his par, right? challenger marine le pen received just over 23 percent. well contenders now go through to the 2nd round. on april 24th,

10 other candidates recross political spectrum have been eliminate. though my current did come out on top in this 1st round, le pen dramatically narrowed the president's lead. in opinion polls. ah, he may have won the 1st round, but for a manual macaroni, this was no time for a victory lap. down don't be fooled, nothing is decided the days 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 to look up at 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 are project is a much stronger respons sorted out of the far right lot. and there scare munger. 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 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 or 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, unless you're a duper with my crohn 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 backer far left lida john,

look melanie shawn who came in 3rd with over a 5th of the vote. 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 mississippi regret in an election that saw the extremes celebrate and traditional parties flatline. the battle lines for france, the future have been drawn. our correspondence sonya panica is covering the old french election for us and sent us this assessment waterfront. once again have a tooth, money, mccoy and marina been asked and expressed but his sign, the coastal 2nd round, will not be easy. professor mccall, he will have to fight every, whoops, hit the campaign trail and visible to struggling plight, inflation and energy. that's what is why the far right the, the marina been,

has been doing for months in markets and in meeting holes across the country. focusing on possibly being claimed to deflect from her to change them nationalism and anticipation. the momentum seems to be on her site, at least for now. on the fall, nicole there. oh cares. mother stories making headlines around the world today in pakistan, lawmakers are set to elect shabazz sharif as prime minister. the leader of the center is pakistan. muslim league is the younger brother of former prime minister. now i sharif. there were protests after cricket star turned politician. him run con, was ousted in a no competence vote on sunday. in a surprise reversal, twitter is announced that billionaire ellen mosque will not be joining the companies. board mosque was recently revealed to be the social media platforms biggest shareholder, but twitters. c. e. o said, must had decided not to take a seat on the board as expected. no explanation was offered. more than 26000

cases of covered 19 have been reported in china's largest city. shanghai officials have reassured worried residents that they will deliver basic supplies as the country sticks to its 0 cobit approach. the southern city a gone. joe has also introduced restrictions and begun building make shift hospitals. a ukrainian couple who were separated by the war have reunited in libby to get married konstantin, stayed in ukraine to fight while his bride. helena 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. melina said she is proud of her new husband, but praise for his safe return. every day. you are watching

dw news, just remind her of the top story. we're following for you this hour. ukrainian president, a lot of me zalinski is warning that russian troops are preparing to carry out large scale operations in the east of the country. authorities say they have exude more than 1200 bodies from the mass graves round the capital kit. following the withdrawal russian forces their watching dw news. i'm terry martin. thanks for being with us. take your time for an experiment about time. it can be measured precisely, and yet each person experiences it differently as if there are different forms of time. the dimension and illusion about time starts april 14th on d w.