[000:00:00;00] ah, [000:00:00;00] ah, this is dw news lying from berlin, tens of thousands have been killed in a ukrainian city of mariel. paul, that's the estimate from ukrainian president more than mere zalesky. after more than a month of relentless shelling by russian forces on the port city. no time for excuses, the german foreign minister calls on the european union to provide ukraine with more heavy weapons,

joining other european union for ministers in luxembourg today. we'll go live to that later in the show. ah, i'm abbacore boss and welcome to the program. we begin this hour with the ukranian city that has seen the most intense fighting since the russian full scale invasion began. more than 6 weeks ago, tens of thousands are dead in merry or bull. according to the ukrainian president ramirez a lansky speaking to south korean lawmakers, he appealed for more weapons to defend the country. the port city has been under relentless, russian bombardment for weeks. officials say much of mary or ball lies and ruins, and tens of thousands are trapped with little or no food and water. russia has said it will focus on eastern ukraine and intensify its military efforts there. our correspondent rebecca readers is standing by and lavelle, rebecca,

the death toll is not fully clear, but the ukrainian president zalinski has that it's tens of thousands of people. and russia, as we know, is going to intensify it's attacks in the east of the country. what more can you tell us? that's right, abbey. it's hard to imagine how president zalinski is estimates could be very far off. i mean, if you think about the worst images you've seen in war, the most devastating pictures coming out of any conflict, that is what's happening in mary paul since the beginning of this war. as you just reported, that city has been under constant russian bombardment and people have been living there without access to food, electricity, communication, and most crucially without access to any drinking water. people have been in there, we hear of been in their bunk has almost the entire time the ukrainians are defending that city. and that's creating even further bombardment from the russian side a i'm so i could very how to get news out of mary paul. but i have spoken to

a couple of people who escaped and they've told me of their harrowing stories of living under that siege. so hard to get out of that city. one doctor i spoke to told me that those same those horrific scenes we've seen in boucher once we say what's happening in mario poll, that'll be boucher times. 10 votes times 100 booty times 1000. so it's very hard to imagine that president salenti, unfortunately, that his estimates are very far off and we know about the millions of internally displaced. people like the woman that you're talking about, the doctor talk to us about the influx of people moving towards love it where you are that's right. i am in love in the west of the country. now, as you can probably see behind me, i mean this city is wild, there's definitely attention to the air. the city is on a marshall lower as well. it's definitely far from the scenes that we're seeing in the eastern parts of the country and therefore has become the relative safety area,

the relative, erica, internally displaced. people have found safety here in levine, but thousands more now are evacuating the east, is the, the conflict seems to be ramping up there, particularly in the dawn bass and the southern regions, the port cities where mary mary poll, for example, i was just reporting in the south east of the country in a city called me pro and also ins apparition, where most people from merry who poll evacuate to. and they were just thousands of people terrified having no idea where they were gonna even go to. and you know, we were, we were talking to lots of people who said that they, that the seeds that they had left behind, which is horrific. i spoke to one gentleman at the train station who said that his friends didn't even want a label. hans can done yet because they were so upset that they'd already been, they'd already lost everything in the war in 2014 and they just weren't going to do it again. they were gonna stick around and defend their cities. they, he did broke down in tears when he talked about it because, you know, everyone's worried that those things that we've seen out of voucher and that we

sent out of mary paul that that's going to happen in their homes, in their cities and towns rebec out we'd know that russian troops invaded ukraine from russia. they did so from bella, ruth and now concern out of ukraine that russia may carry out operation from moldova does break away. trans mystery, our region. what more can you tell us about that? we don't have a lot of information on that abbey, but what i can tell you is the ukrainian military said that they are worried that russia will try an attack from the west, through mold over in an area known as trans mystery. and now they have, it's been controlled by russia since the 90s, and i have about 1500 troops stationed there. that they're worried that of course, it mold over is right next to the port city of odessa, which is a key target of the russian military. it's certainly a city that they want to gain control off and so far the city has spared much bombardment at all. but with the change of direction of the conflict, that is definitely going to say, wrapping up all of shelling and bombardment. they're worried that the if the

soldiers from the west, through moldova could make soldiers coming from the sea and from the east, and therefore encircled ukrainian troops that had been trying to defend that port city. now russia has denied claims that they are going to do anything like that, but rush also denied that they were going to invade you crime. so they were not holding much white at this moment. w correspondent rebecca peters. thank you, rebecca. the city a sion you have in northern ukraine was besieged by russian forces for weeks falling to wash and withdraw from the region. the horrors of what happened there are coming to light and offer a glimpse into the atrocities happening in other parts of that ukraine. still under russian bombardment. the city of journey his of to weeks of siege and have his shelling by russian forces. we meet svetlana and

valentino sapient coin a local hospitals where they survived, but were both injured in a nurse strike that hit their house, the ballistic wounded some one lord took less than a 2nd. loosely, sweet. we just heard a whistle yet. great boom. the symbol i screamed get down was then covered, my son freeman, the gruesome ward 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 . this done up on why did they attack us? 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. for 2 hours before we worked without water and electricity,

willingly put 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 for raleigh, a will of 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 and a local morgue edward slept please using refrigerator trucks for the bodies that still needs to be identified or pick up by relatives. a durable author, they will 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 walnut. so that's why there are still many bodies here to preserve the right. listen here was that would be those who come here to claim their loved ones are overwhelmed by grief. like 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 after the withdrawal of russian forces from germany heath. and what those who survived few most is that the russian army might return harrison or the other stories linked to the warren ukraine that were falling for you this hour. ukrainian president water mere zalinski has discussed more sanctions against russia. with the german chancellor,

olaf sholtes lansky, welcome german support, but still wants berlin to halt russian energy imports will do. austrian chancellor, karl nay. hammer is meeting russia as president vladimir putin in moscow. nay, hammer is the 1st leader to see putin in person. since the star of the full scale invasion, austria is hoping to act as a mediator. the world bank says ukraine's economy will shrink by as much as 45 percent this year. the war has forced around half of all businesses to close, an exports have plunged. the bank is calling for global financial support. hundreds of children have been killed and wounded since the start of the war on ukraine, and many thousands more have been traumatized by the violence they've witnessed. but there's only limited capacity for professional treatment, with many facilities destroyed or evacuated because of russian attacks. dw correspondent on philip shoulds visited a children's, psychiatric clinic in the western city of live,

and spoke to some of the young patients there. when words fail, pictures sometimes help. 4 weeks live it's largest psychiatric clinic has been treating more and more children with severe water trauma. bussey lena comes from hard keith. she saw rockets destroy her hometown and killed 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 at because we will win him. 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, maurice, 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 with 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. we're going 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 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, who would sway since become apathetic. many ask every day if they can ever go back to that old lives. i'm so sorry about my country. i used to live in such a beautiful city. now everything is destroyed on us t and tries to reach out to the children with games and music. and they are often amazed about the resilience of the young patients. one of them this week that,

that sometimes we ask ourselves who is treating whom old, are we treating them or they treating us to me. it works in both directions. they give us so much of a, if they went with us, we would be much worse off more than on behalf of hist for the pillow. santa has learned through her work that doctors shouldn't give children false hope. the situation is bed. and unfortunately, the most innocent of all, we'll probably have to live with this for a long time. european union, foreign ministers are meeting in luxembourg to discuss ways to expand their support for ukraine. you foreign affairs commissioner, yoseph burrell has already proposed an additional 500000000 euros and weapons, and other military equipment. ministers are also expected to make further steps on sanctions and a plan to phase out russian. oil imports faster. a block has announced a ban on russian school as of last friday. ahead of the meeting,

german foreign minister on atlanta burbock said what ukraine needs right now is more military personnel and heavy weapons. as much may i saw at least that the horrific pictures that we're seeing the terror we see daily make clear that ukraine needs further military support to defend itself. we're doing that together with our international partners hines and with our european partners. we're providing millions more via our european piece facility. right? you can piece vicinity about plot. what is clear? ukraine needs further military personnel on most of all heavy weapons. there's no time for excuses now is the time for being creative and pragmatic ones. kuchma is most from our rejoin now by d. w chief, political correspondent, melinda crane. she's with me here in studio, melinda. i don't wanna bear boxing, creative solutions are required, that heavy weapons need to be delivered to grant urgently. that is exactly what ukraine wants, but berlin has been criticized for dragging its feet. that's right. you know,

in fact the government here got off to a good start right after the war with a landmark speech by the chancellor in which he promised that germany would supply weapons until then that had been viewed as a taboo. here in germany, sending weapons to a conflict zone. and in fact, initially the government did follow through with defensive weapons, that included stinger missiles that surface to air missiles, anti tank weapons, and so on. but for the past 2 weeks, we've heard ukraine calling for heavy weapons, and on this the government is now perceived to be stalling and equivocating. and basically, what we're, we're hearing from the chancellor is either a reference to the need for all e u countries to coordinate on further heavy weapons deliveries. which of course, is exactly what's going on here to day in luxembourg with a new facility from the e. u. to provide f,

another 500000000 in support for weapons purchases. and the 2nd reason that the chancellor has often given is essentially dead that germany is doing every thing available. and clearly what the foreign minister is suggesting here in her remarks is that that's not the case. it's a little bit of a division between the chancery and the foreign ministry. we'll get to that again later. but we often speak here about an underfunded german military. but is it a lack of sophisticated weaponry in germany that they're not able to actually provide this because they don't have it, or is it a lack of political? well, the fact is that the german military, the book fair, is not provisioned the way that it could or should be do 2 years of under funding. that is absolutely the case. and therefore, the defense minister has said that germany has now essentially reached the limit of what the military can supply from its own stockpiles. but she herself has said, however, we could or, or industry could supply weapons. and this is where the creativity comes into play

that the foreign minister talked about. because if the government were to cut through its own procedural red tape, its own bureaucracy and expedite working together with for example, defense contractor like ryan mitchell, which is said that it would very much like to deliver tanks to ukraine. it has dozens of tags standing around on its premises that need to be maintained. that maintenance could be speeded up, and those tanks could either be provided to the bone despair itself, freeing up its tanks to be shipped to ukraine. or they could perhaps be sent to ukraine itself. the point here is, we're not seeing those creative solutions. we're seeing suggestions that there's a lot of bureaucracy in business as usual, still going on. and by the way, we heard a similar call from of this, the foreign ministers today from the economy minister. he's a green party colleague of miss bear buck. and he also said time his of the essence, we need to move quickly. i think there's a percept perception on the part of ukrainians. many of them also on the part of

many critics, both at home and abroad, that germany isn't doing that. that there's no sense of urgency here in berlin. we're going to go to luxembourg. now we're d w. correspond, christine, why is standing by? were you a foreign ministers? are meeting christine? we know at this meeting the icy chief prosecutor kareem khan has met with the block today. what came out of those talks? that's right, sir abbey. the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court addressed the meeting of foreign ministers. the european union is going to be assisting the i c. c. in it's probe of war crimes, 3 member states. i have committed a money to the tune of some 2 and a half 1000000 euros to assist the i c. c in this effort. and this is everything from europe gathering the evidence that is needed to, to, to help build the case. so this of course is coming out on the back of fad. the

eagle chief. oh is it on the line visiting keith? she visited butcher, for example, alongside her i was the european union, sir. foreign policy chief, joseph morrell, who just before going into this meeting this morning, i told the media about what he had seen and ukraine, how that had left an impact on him. and how he would be telling the foreign ministers here today. so they certainly is the sense that the atrocities that are being committed, i in i use in ukraine amount to war crimes on the part of russian officials and the european union is interested in, in assisting in bringing some of those perpetrators to justice and not just in terms of political support of the isis efforts. but also monetary support as we see in germany, is among those 3 e u member states that are going to be giving money towards that effort. abby christine,

the 5th round of sanctions came in recent days. what kind of announcements are we expecting to come out of this latest meeting or with the foreign ministers? i can tell you on the outset at that this meeting was not about formalizing a new package of sanctions. of course, as joseph boreal said, going into this meeting re fi, i have to enter on a barbara because of the trailing foreign minister. anna leon are variable right now speaking at this meeting, left listening right right . in mind in mind. um, i want to deal with the european union after stand even should intensify our deliveries of weapons and equipment to ukraine. we have also talked about the situation of the neighboring countries in the west balcony to day when russia

wage as a war. not only why in ukraine and against the ukraine is sir, a war that also wants to split europe. and so it's so important for those countries ah, under the lend, i shown that lang 3rd in there will patient when you are striving to become members of the european union, we should not disappoint these countries. we should keep our promise of offering european by a membership that is true for the countries of the west. balkan was for the own pena for north mosley and macedonia, in particular, guy it is now our responsibility in the 1st 5 of this year, 2 hensley. finally opened membership negotiations for albania and nevada, north most antonia. i just had a bilateral form to the bulgarian minister of foreign affairs, were the 2 of us half agreed. it is central in the current situation to start our

enlargement process. and i hope very much that bulgaria is going to alpha. oh, so i meant to work on some of the issues we still have with that is that also concerns via the country. so further, west balcony sagging in boston, doyle the ring up the recent weeks and days they have said in they see their future in the european union, they see their security and the european union. and that is why most of these countries support i d e u. sanction sandra. and so i also would like to emphasize the case of soviet yeah, if you want to become a member of the european union unsafe your wants to become a member, it is central at times such as ours to also support to foreign policy and the sanctions of the european union via and beyond that to day that we have also talked leave yard of the vague about and touch goods on the global support tenant and how we can make sure neg dad energy security. how high it food security hack in mind is

an issue that we don't lie soil in europe, but we look at the global scale and that's one of the central towns together with the united nations to work on implement security in these respects are stellar. oh, i also would like to speak to 2 minutes to say something about it and it should be goals. withdrawal from offers. analysts beagle has been through a very hard personally very difficult time. why do you do? is to day liters. so now personally, i'm vic prescription was she has destroyed embarked on the new path both politically and personally. and that shows how brutal politics can be in a manner and her in that is a reminder to all of us in that respect. i do respect voicing and mr. biggles decision that she, he bonus would cook to day to, to resign from office. and i would like to say that we're asked the government life . we will lose an incredibly wonderful minister of family affairs. she is very

passionate about the rights of women and children. and she has started one of the major reform project here in our collect listen government. thank you. listening to the german foreign minister, and alina bearable, their speaking on the sidelines of the foreign minister meeting in luxemburg. joining studio as always, melinda crane, r. g, d, w. chief, political correspondent, melinda. what stood out to you from the comments that the foreign minister made there will certainly her emphasis on the need for you. unity, we've heard similar statements in regard both to weapons deliveries, to ukraine, but also in regard to further sanctions. and as you know, the e u is now looking at establishing a joint purchasing facility for fossil fuels, not from russia, of course, but alternative fuel sources in order to have more power on the market. clearly

a very sensible step and i think what we're hearing from behind the scenes at today's meeting is know another package of sanctions was not formally on the agenda, something to be reached today. but there was apparently significant discussion of this. also, some pressure put on germany when it comes to a potential embargo not simply of coal, which of course was decided last week, but moving on perhaps to russian oil and, or gas. and it seems that the next step toward oil is absolutely now under discussion. so when we hear this press conference, we may not hear an announcement on that a bit. apparently, that was one of the items being discussed. and of course, germany has been perceived not only on arms deliveries, but also on the question of an embargo, as essentially dragging its feet. and in the case of the embargo, dragging its feet along with a country like hungary known to be quite friendly to russia. a rather awkward situation that germany does find itself in, and there's

a perception on the part of many critics, both at home as well as abroad, that if germany can't move forward on one front, it ought to do so on the other. in other words, if it can't move forward on an fargo as gas because of the difficult consequences for the economy, that perhaps it needs to work harder on those weapons deliveries. we were talking about a minute ago. do something essentially we heard from european union foreign minister counterparts. the check foreign minister basically saying what needs to happen for the you to impose such an embargo? we hear from the lithuanian foreign minister saying go to boucher and see for yourselves why why we need such an embargo so clearly within the european union. there is this division, but let's talk about the division here within the german government. we've heard now from adelina bearable in recent days. you mentioned earlier, we were chatting outside that economy mister robert hobbit has also made comments about germany doing more. where's the chancellor melinda?

the chancellor on the question of the embargo has spelled out his concern for the german economy and certainly that concern is justified. this is a very, a heavy industry economy and an export master. as you know, a world champion exporter based on manufactured goods. all of those are very, very hungry industries and energy hungry industries. they need huge supplies of gas. and therefore, jobs would be at stake if there were an embargo. nonetheless, there's a lot of discussion in germany about exactly how serious and grave the consequences would be for the economy with some economic institute saying we could handle it and others saying it would be quite problematic. certainly the economy minister has also called attention to the potential consequences and essentially said we need to delay this as long as we can. what we haven't heard from the chancellor is perhaps

the kind of leadership that many germans who also now are saying and polls they think their government is not doing enough. i would like to hear that this is a wealthy country. this is a country of courageous citizens who are committed and therefore this is a country that will step up to the challenges it faces. rather, we have seen a chancellor who in some ways is talking about fear rather than trying to allay fear. and i think that's why there's a perception amongst many here at home that we're not seeing the kind of leadership the chancellor showed at the outset of the war when he gave that landmark speech that i referred to. but rather that he's sort of taken a step back and is perceived to be equivocating, once again, as he did in the run up to the war when he for a long time didn't want to commit on suspending the north stream to gas pipeline

with russia. so essentially, i think we're seeing the, the economy minister, we're seeing the foreign minister really pushing for stronger action. but often appearances indicate that it's the chancellor who's holding back. let's go to a luxembourg. where do you know we've corresponded christine moon? why is standing by christine linda and i've been chatting here about unity with in germany. let's talk about you. unity. they've been saying how united they are since before this invasion of the response would be a collective one. but as melinda mentioned, you're hungry. now pulling back and dragging its feet as well. what more can you tell us about that? that's right. i mean the cracks i have started to appear so to say and, and you ready seed in the conversation around sanctions? we are now talking about an e. u. embargo on coal that'll come effectively in the coming months. that took some ragging among the u member states. they are some that particularly the baltic states calling for a total energy bogo. and those of course,

like germany hungry and others who insist that this should be a phased out approach, as opposed to an immediate embargo. so you're seeing it as well. you'd, you talked about hungry. this is one member state that has, for example, broken rank a with the rest of the european union, i indicating its willingness to pay for its russian energy imports. and rubles, that is something that moscow had demanded. the european union took it united decision to oppose that, but the hungarians, for their part have said they found a way to do so in a way that doesn't necessarily go against the sanctions. today. you have the austrian chancellor visiting moscow. it's not a trip that was mandated at an eagle level. i was just speaking to the foreign minister of lexia who told me that he disagreed with such an approach. so you're starting to see the different member states pursuing different courses in terms of