[000:00:00;00] ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin, fears of chemical weapons in ukraine, ukraine's president warrens that russia could use such unconventional weapons against the besieged city of matthew po. heavy bombardment has already caused devastation, possibly killing thousands of civilians since the start of the war. also coming up, block town takes its toll on shanghai. after 3 weeks of heavy restrictions,

supplies are running low. it's the biggest test yet for china's 0 cove with strategy. ah, i'm pablo foliage. welcome to the program. russia's assault on the besieged city of murder. you pull, appears to be entering a decisive phase. u. s. military analysts say russian forces are nearing full control of the city, closing in on trap ukrainian forces. russia says it's killed or captured almost $100.00 ukrainian troops attempting to escape overnight matter. you pull has been pounded by russian strikes for weeks, killing up to 20000 residents. according to the local mayor, civilians are expected to attempt to evacuate by car. today, along one of several negotiated humanitarian car doors,

the cities full wood gave russia complete control of the sea, of as odds, coastline, and connect its forces in ukraine, south and east. and meanwhile, ukraine and western nations are investigating allegations that russian forces may have used chemical weapons in matter. you pull, the claim was made by the as of battalion, a ukrainian military group with far right. members, it said a russian drone had dropped a poisonous substance on troops and civilians causing respiratory and other problems. russia has denied the claim. ukrainian president of automated savanski has called on world leaders to respond will be was rudely. one of the russian occupier spokesmen who said that they might use chemical weapons against the defenders of north pole. okay. and then treat this with the utmost seriousness, which i would like to remind will 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 much harsher and faster source decent issue h or were now joined by our correspondent rebecca renters, who is now in the western ukrainian city of levine. rebecca, great to see you. now we're hearing allegations of chemical attacks being carried out by russia. what we know about the situation and how do you pull now? hello. it's really difficult to get real time information of what's happening in that receive city. as you can imagine, communication has been caught from the city for more than a month, or the mayor of mario poll says at least $10000.00 people a believe to have been killed in that city. president the landscape puts that number at much higher than that saying tens of thousands in the multiples of 10000 and seeing the pictures and hearing the stories of people who do manage to get out of that city. unfortunately, it certainly seems that presidents are lends keys predictions they're estimations

are probably more accurate and why have spoken to some people who get out of that city who've managed to make it out of that city. and basically talking of the most horrendous tales. i mean, if you can imagine the worst images of any war that's basically what's happening in mary paul. some $100000.00 people still believed to be tracked in that city or without access to food or clean drinking water. that, excuse me, obviously we're in the main square here, levin. it's quite busy and bustling. so the truck behind you, i hope you can still hear me. ah, but now of course we're hearing a ramp or you know, an escalation, a potential escalation with reports of a chemical attack. now they are of course, unconfirmed her. but if true, would that definitely signify an escalation? rebecca, how are you? craniums coping with these allegations of chemical weapons being used? people are understandably outraged at news of this. and as you heard presidents lensky,

they're calling from much stronger reaction from the west to he's been careful, of course, because they haven't been confirmed yet. the russians have denied carrying out these, carrying out a chemical attack, bought the spokesperson for the russian separatist, came out on monday and said that chemical weapons would be used to quite smoke out the remaining battalion in that area, the protecting that city. so it is definitely plausible that chemical weapons could be used, but jalencia being very careful to, to wait, wait for confirmation, the u. k. and the us working very hard to verify those claims rebecca raters in the ukrainian city of the thank you for that. while we're joined now by alexander keller from the institute for peace research and security policy at the university of hamburg, he studies the use of chemical and biological weapons. i and welcome to

d. w. now ukraine's as of regiment says, russia used a quote, poisonous substance in mighty you pull. how would specialists verify whether a chemical weapons attack actually took place though? well, ideally, an independent investigation by team coming from the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons and the hague would be able to visit the sides of the supposed chemical weapon use and take samples their environmental samples, but also biomedical samples, which would then have to be analyzed, alexander, if a chemical weapons attack is confirmed, what would a meaningful response from the international community look like? well, i think, 1st of all, the international community should stick to the tools that are available internationally to hold the perpetrators of such terrible acts. to account that is

on the one hand in the disarmament area. again the o. p. c. w in the hague, which provides a venue for such accountability or the un security council. well, if, for example, and there are more sanctions that could or would likely not impress ad vladimir putin and military and for intervention is not appealing to the united states. what options are there really all the, the options are, are not that many. um we have, as i indicated on the one hand disarmament instruments, arms control treaties. and then we have international criminal law to hold perpetrators of war crimes and such atrocities as chemical weapons used to account . but that is a very long slope too. yeah, the chief accountability and justice for,

for the victims of such terrible acts. now, m r, the international law is to prevent the use of chemical weapons worth the paper. they're actually, they're written on i would say yes, absolutely. because we know about all the atrocities that happened in syria through the use of chemical weapons. only because we have these instruments and mechanisms in place. and because the o, p. c, w has been able to go with their or go to a neighboring countries of syria and, and conduct these investigations. the fact that when the reports are then transmitter to new york to the security council and the security council is blocked because of russian vetoes, which we can assume would also happen if the supposed attack and mario pole would

be investigated that way and reported then to to new york to the security council that does not diminish the value and the validity of these mechanisms. and these tools that we have alexander keller, from the institute for peace research and security policy. thank you. you're very welcome. well, here are some of the other headlines on the war in ukraine. nearly 2 thirds of ukrainian children have been forced to leave their home since russia invited 6 weeks ago, according to the when they also expressed concerns over human trafficking and the sexual abuse of minus russian president vladimir putin has said that his military campaign in ukraine will achieve its noble objectives. he made the remarks as he met that, a routine president, alexander shank, add a space port in eastern russia to mark the international day of human space flight

russian opposition thinker. vladimir kyra moore's. i was arrested in moscow on monday. his lawyer has confirmed he was charged with failing to follow a lawful order, but the details of the case are unclear. u. s. secretary of state antony blank and said in a tweet, we are monitoring their situation closely and urged his immediate release. european union, foreign ministers have been meeting in luxembourg to discuss ways to expand their support for ukraine. they proved additional weapons for keith, but the $27.00 member block still remains divided on the sanctions that would hurt moscow. the most. a boycott 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 kind of now is the time for creative solutions. c i 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 is 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 regulations of international law. we will provide assistance, assistance to the tune of 1000000 euros from germany alone, amid so much agreement, the foreign ministers, however, failed to agree on a blanket embargo on buying russian oil. what other news now more than 2 years after the outbreak of coven 19 china is battling with its highest ever case numbers

. the country's largest city, shanghai is the worst hit 26000000 people. there are under strict locked n. but as china pursues its strict 0 covert policy cracks in people's patients are beginning to show fabi on catch my eye report. for weeks, the streets of shanghai have been empty. supermarkets are shut. delivery workers that would normally be weaving their way through the city are nowhere to be seen. social media is full of cries for help and complaints about the lack of food. some videos, show unrest, neighborhoods where people are desperate to find food. and in one unverified video, people even seem 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. ginia and les, it's

a tomato pharma who walk 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 a video he shot on his 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's lives better, i think it adds a certain twist that, that, you know, people here and the leadership here are not, are not so comfortable with for the past 2 years, china is touted it's approach to us containing the virus and pointed towards its ramp and spread the west as a mark of superiority. this could break the narrative that china system is better at doing this, especially if it really explodes the next few weeks. so we could be at quite an inflection point, and how would evolves and, and how the world comes to see 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 d w use. here's

a reminder of our main story. the mayor of my tuple has said the civilian death toll in his city could surpass. 20000. germany's foreign minister has pulled for more heavy weapons for you brain in its fight to repel brushes, invasion well, that's it for me, for this arrow. next dw business with steve appeared to me. i'll be back again at the top of the next hour, and in the meantime, he can stay up to date on our website. he w dot com. i can't see that. so i'm kinda, i think that's hard. and in the end the some me, you are not a lot of to you anymore. we will send you back. are you familiar with this? with the smugglers, with lions as of the what's your story. ready i