ah ah ah, this is the w news live from berlin, ukraine's president walls russia could use chemical weapons against the besieged city of mario, full. as the bombardment has already devastated the city, possibly killing thousands of civilians since the start of the war. also coming up . russia's war could trigger a global food shortage says the use top diplomat, ukraine as a major wheat exported to world markets. but bombed fields and blocked ports are throwing global supply into caves and locked down takes its toll on shanghai. after

3 weeks of heavy restrictions, supplies are running low. it's the biggest yet for china's 0 cove, its strategy. ah, i'm glad else as well come to the program. the united kingdom says it is trying to confirm whether chemical weapons were used in maria poll. following unconfirmed reports of people suffering from breathing problems that russian forces have been pounding the south eastern port city for weeks, possibly killing thousands of civilians. a member of a russian back separatist group told russian straight stay tv. that chemical weapons could be a way to finally take the city and as nightly addressed president blood, me as the lensky said, the world should be alarmed by that threat or dean's rule. but if one of the

russian occupier spokesmen who said that they might use chemical weapons against the dissenters of mary paul. again, treat this with the utmost seriousness, which i would like to remind world leaders that the possible use of chemical weapons by the russian military has already been discussed. and already at that time, it meant that it was necessary to react to the russian aggression what much harsher and faster zeus kesha issue. each. earlier i spoke to the w, corresponded young phillips shots and asked about the unconfirmed reports of chemical weapons being used by russia. against mario pl. first reports about the possible use of chemical weapons and merged last night's a ukrainian fight. us says that russian troops dropped a poisonous substance on the besieged city of maria pole using a drone. the u. s. and the u. k. have already started investigations, as you know,

we have seen the use of chemical weapons, sir, by the russians and previous wars. however, the origin of the current sir, allegations seem to come from the so called us is of regiment. it's a para military group of fighting in a mario poll fighting to defense the city. but they have also been allegations in the past that among those are fighters are radical right wing extremists and even some neo nazis. so at the moment or president zalinski, as we heard sir said, that's a use of chemical weapons, is a possibility, but he hasn't confirmed it yet. yet. what do you know about the situation in maria for right now. the situation is disastrous sir. the city is almost completely destroy, it's a very so heavy urban warfare going on,

the is the russians seem to have been and had to have made some advances. recently, the humanitarian situation is a disaster of our hundreds of, of dead bodies on the streets. the mayor said that there could be up to $20000.00 people debts and so we are here more and more about many alleged cases of rape. so the situation in the city is disastrous. son, you evacuation curry does have been established in recent days, but there are still at least 800000 people or more a trapped in the city. and if you're in odessa, that's another port city. how's the situation there? your in odessa at the moment, the situation is relatively calm. people are worried about

a possible major attack by the russians, but they are not panicking between maria paul and odessa is still the part city of nikolai. and the russians would have to take over this city 1st, before they can start a major attack on odessa, odessa, of course, it's a city of extremely high significance when it comes to the economy of the country when it comes to a military military. and also a culturally it's, it's, it's highly significant and it's probably very, very high on, on, put in new list of priorities. but like i said, the people are not panicking here. i talked to a high ranking officer of the ukrainian military yesterday. and they say, they feel very well prepared for a possible major attack by the russians to debbie's young. should have schultz, their reporting from odessa. and here are some of the other headlines related to

the war and ukraine. nearly 2 thirds of ukrainian children have been forced to leave their home since russia invaded 6 weeks ago that according to the un, they also expressed concern of a human trafficking and the sexual abuse of minus 142 children are confirmed to have been killed since the start of the war, and for the 230 injured austria's chance. laconia ha. my has met with vladimir putin and moscow is the 1st you leader to do so. since the start of the war, the hammer said he told the russian president and the invasion but was pessimistic about the meeting. he warned, must come. he warned that moscow is preparing an offensive in easton ukraine on a massive scale european union. foreign ministers have been meeting in luxembourg to discuss ways to expand their support for ukraine. they approve additional weapons forgive,

but the block still remains divided on the sanctions that would hurt moscow. the most. a boy cause of russian oil and gas. time is of the essence. that was the mood of the e. u. foreign minister, summit rushes thought to be planning a military offensive in ukraine's east. the eas response, a pledge of more arms deliveries worth an additional $500000000.00 euros. he okay, enough ukraine needs more military supplies, especially heavy weapons. now is not the time for excuses. now is the time for creative solutions. c a t v t. that includes german weapons. after initial doubt about sending arms to ukraine, talks are under way about how to possibly provide keep with equipment such as lay apart tanks. berlin has already sent patriot missiles to slovakia, which has agreed and turned to provide some of its surface to air missiles and other hardware to ukraine. there was also e wide agreement that the block was support efforts to investigate possible war

crimes, how to make russia accountable for the gross gross violations of international law. we will provide assistance assistance to the tune of 1000000 euros from germany alone amid so much agreement. the e foreign ministers, however, failed to agree on a blanket embargo on buying russian oil. wheat has been sewn, but what will happen to the coming harvest from the fields of ukraine, the fertile black soil that is particularly suited for growing that grain. normally, ukraine supplies about 10 percent of the world's wheat exports, the biggest buyers, egypt, indonesia, pakistan, and bangladesh. about many pounds of ukraine are under attack, including grain shipment roots, the whence food and agricultural organization is not wanting often with supply shortage. that could trigger famine,

especially in africa. and earlier i spoke to martin frick, he's the germany director of the un will food program. i asked him if we can expect to see a rise in global hunger. i think we already seen that, and it's important to know that the ukraine war is just an additional stress on what has been extremely difficult when prices are skyrocketing beyond all time for food prices and the war in grain as we have just heard, as basically directly records for percent of the globally traded calories this and another way and who is countries and course families and so so where and when will it hit 1st? but it already did it because the prices went up immediately and we have so many

food insecure countries that are depending on impulse from ukraine and also russia, particulary in the middle east, the north africa region, but also in sub saharan africa. and in southern africa. mon, the countries that are most dependent on, for example, never known, or egypt or livia, but also our operations as the world food program. i have a, the effect that with this or was it was a bit more detail. how are these countries that you just mentioned? how are they being affected already? well, look, if you are going to countries like mauritania, seneca, kini sierra leone, gun nigeria. they depend sometimes to 7080 percent of foreign. now these countries as a, anyone else in the world are coming out of 2 years of and then the world has been staggering. $26.00 trillion dollars on them,

which means that we're countries even more in that then they everywhere. additional exchange rates are melting away. and in this situation, you have globally storing prices for staple foods and a very strong dollar in simple terms. they just cannot afford anymore to buy the most basic. and that is affecting the countries that cannot afford, and it's affecting the poorest family that often spend already 70 percent of the family income for grant mazda 6, that the germany director of the u. s. will sued program, speaking to us earlier to other news. now, 2 years after the outbreak of coven 19 china is now battling with highest a case numbers. the company's largest city. shanghai is the worst. it's 26000000 people that are under a strict lockdown. but as china pursues, it's

a stringent 0 cove. it's policy cracks and people's patients are beginning to show fabia freshman as more for weeks, the streets of shanghai have been empty. supermarkets shot delivery workers that wouldn't normally be leaving their way through the city are nowhere to be seen. social media is put up, cries for help, and complaints about a lego food. some videos, show unrest, neighborhoods where people are desperate to find food. and in one unverified video, people even seen looting a supermarket authorities scrambling to deliver supplies. but they are huge probably know if i'm in for delivering vegetables, some of getting their food early summer getting late. it has a big impact on people's lives. chin yet les, it's a tomato pharma who works on the outskirts of the city. he's doing his part to try and help. he's moved out of his home and into

a dorm at the industrial greenhouses. whereas company growth tomatoes. this is the video he shot on its phone of the room. he's saying in general, were understaffed at the moment and need to ensure we keep up production. so he start work early and work over time for about 2 hours a day. but reports say the biggest hurdle and the delivery of goods is at the last mile. many delivery workers and other supply personnel remain under locked down themselves. the challenge is getting food from markets and warehouses to people's home. the local government is now trying to mobilize delivery workers to get back to work. as long as there aren't any positive cases within their residential compound, the bottlenecks could pose a serious problem to the government. frank psi is c o and founder of china crossroads and a risk specialist. he's a resident of shanghai and has been under locked on himself for over a week. when you induce food insecurity to

a country whose purpose is to modernize and make people lives better. i think it adds a certain twist that, that, you know, people here and the leadership here are not, not so comfortable for the past 2 years. china is touted its approach towards containing the virus and pointed towards its ramp and spread in the west as a mock of its superiority. this could break the narrative that china system is better at doing. it's especially, but really close to the next few weeks. so we could be at quite an inflection point in how cobra balls and how the world comes to see tries performance. but how its own people see it is what met us. the most. and authorities will need to get a handle on the situation quickly to prevent people's frustration from spiraling any further. you're watching t w. c. as a reminder of our top story, the may of mario paul has said the civilian death toll in this city cooks the past

. 20000. germany's foreign minister has pulled for more heavy weapons for ukraine in it's fight to repel russia's and that's it from me for they saw up next is close up on the netherlands, drug trade and public folios will have an update for youth at the top of the not just another day. so much is happening all at once. we take time to understand this is the day and in depth look at current news, events analyzed by experts and critical thinkers. and this is the weekdays on d w.