ah ah ah ah, this is dw news life from berlin, the united states ascending weapons worth $800000000.00 to ukraine. washington hopes the additional assistance will helping ukrainian army repel a russian offensive in the east. the latest equipment includes heavy artillery and helicopters. ukraine says it's michelle's have not the flagship of russia's black sea fleet out of commission. russia has only acknowledged that

a fire on board seriously damaged the missile cruiser and devastating floods sweep away homes and infrastructure in south africa, killing hundreds of people. president, serial rama poses pledges help for the victims and says the disaster is part of climate. ah, i'm pablo foley as welcome to the program. u. s. president joe biden has approved $800000000.00 an additional military assistance to ukraine. the package includes heavy artillery and helicopters as the country prepares to defend itself from a renewed russian assault that's expected to target. the east of the country. satellite images have shown large convoys of russian military vehicles converging on the don bass region. murray, you poll,

is in ruins. after weeks of russian bombardment, the u. s. says it is once again sending arms to ukraine to stop russia's destruction of the country. ah, today the president announced and author us another presidential drawdown of security assistance, valued it up to an additional $800000000.00 tailored to meet urgent ukrainian needs for today's fight. as russian forces shift the focus of their ruthless aggression now to eastern ukraine, ukraine's president expressed his gratitude. we've agreed on $800000000.00 in military aid for weapons ammunition, artillery helicopters and more than i am sincerely thankful for the support that you get that all the need for more arms as urgent as russian convoys converge on eastern ukraine. analysts say the weapons in the american

package, such as long range howitzers are especially suited to ukraine's defense of the eastern gone bass region. so you one system like that that can fire your 3040 kilometers away from where you are trying to break up the military long before he gets close to you and that's what ukrainians need at this moment. they need to destroy the russian convoys before they even get to the cities or near to locations. they want to take. the pentagon said it was rushing to send the equipment, but did not provide a time table for the people in the eastern ukrainian city of seattle, rodonna. it's something as simple as walking to get groceries is a calculated risk that could end in tragedy. war has brought life to a standstill though it's a disaster. got every 10 or 15 minutes in bam, bam as well. i live on the 7th floor of a 94 building. it just imagine boom from one side band from the other. and then you

think the roof will cave in until you, well, it's a policy, but for some, the fighting is too much to bear. a bus takes them away from the bombs. but others are staying behind, hoping to survive the russian advance. if weapons from the u. s. don't stop at 1st . for the latest, we're joined now by our correspondent alexandra phenomena who's at near keith. at keith i, alexandra, you're out on a simon fer it looks like you're in an area that's been of the damage to in this war. tell us a little bit more about where you are and what you've been seeing. we are in a small town of boulevard that is about 40 to 50 kilometers west of the ukrainian capital. and the russian forces tried to capture this town as many others here to continue with their offensive on key f. and the building that you can see

behind me is a school that was attacked by russian tanks at this moment during this attack, more than 100 people, including children, were shaky, were seeking shelter in the cellar of the school. fortunately, no one was killed, but people here local residents that we were able to speak were told us there, stole the stories about their brutality of the russian soldiers. there also told us that some of the local residents were shot dead by russian soldiers without doing anything without any reason. so again, we are hearing horrifying stories from residents about how a day and suffer it during the time where the russian soldiers were trying to capture the city. trudy dreadful. now you've also been speaking with soldiers? what have they been telling you while we spoke with

a brigade halstead territorial, the felons defense forces. there are not your normal regular units off the ukrainian army. but of course there are very important here. and there was important here because they were able to request report the russian offensive, and they told us that they didn't even have body armor estate. they use their own cars to, to travel around. and, and this is really what you cannot imagine that, that was happening. he and they told us, of course, how important it is for the west to provide the ukrainian forces with more weapons, with heavy weapons that would help them to repel a russian soldiers as they did here. and of course, were the whole countries now bracing foyce the great battle that is expected to take place place in the eastern and south eastern part of the country will tell us what is the latest to emma from this sad, this wider,

rushing offensive in eastern ukraine what we are hearing is that the russian forces are on the move are trying to get closer to the donate sca region. there are trying, of course, that is they're going goal to take full control of the donuts and low hon screeching of the so called don bas area. a. we have heard reports today about the ukranian forces saying that they were able to destroy a bridge, use by the russian forces, and that is considered here as, as a huge success dw, corresponding to alexander phenomena reporting from outside keith, thank you. well the warship, musk about the flagship of the russian black sea fleet has been badly damaged after an explosion, the russian defense ministry said a fire caused a ammunition to that night. it didn't say what caused the blaze, but did say the entire crew of 500 siders had been evacuated. however,

ukrainian officials claim 2 of their missiles hit the ship. i'm now joined by military analyst and former general in the u. k armed forces. chris devereaux, chris, thank you for joining us here on d. w. and 1st of all, i want to talk about the russian black c fleet flagship moscow. russia admits a court fire, but says it was an ammunition explosion and accidents will say, ukraine says it, stroke the mosque of a with to me cells. what do you think is more likely? well, actually, but it could be true. it could be the case that you couldn't miss. i was struck the ship which caused an ammunition explosion. that's a distinct possibility. i think that the evidence is that the koreans did take into service with the credit navy last year and upgraded ex soviet michelle. cool. next june, maximum range, about 200 miles,

which is about half way across the black sea. they have demonstrated the ability to hit russian ships before destroying a landing support vessel, the in the pull to the dns, numerical in the, in the see of, of that recently. so i, i suspect the answer is it is indeed the case that the moscow has been, sancho are badly damaged by, by credit missiles. now rush is also saying ukrainian forces defending money. you pull, have surrendered on mass. now if marty you pull has fallen high, serious a blow is that to you cranes defense of the country. firstly, i don't think we know that it has swollen. i mean that the russians are reporting large scale surrenders, but the credit hadn't confirmed that. they say that fighting and still i think the evidence is it's a matter of time before, eventually, mary po, fools, because the russians have overwhelming superior numbers and,

and the parents surrounded. and i think that most likely thing that that would result in the freeing up of those troops to go north to assist the russian campaign and done this tentative is that they would go in the opposite direction towards the desk. but i think it's now looking as if the russians have given up on i'm trying to take a decimal will, are the mil, ukrainian forces prepared and in the east and, and south east of the country. they've been a long time there had been ukrainian forces in that area since the russians invaded the done best and took crimea in 2014 so so they'd be there a long time. they will talk in the well equipped or so to me increasingly well kept by, by western musicians and weapons. and so, you know,

i think it's a significant proportion of the crating on the, i guess about just on the half in that area. so i think it, it's not an easy thing to do for the russians to become the, the russian on forces would have to get considerably more effective. to do so. you know, i don't think they're going to succeed, even with more limited objectives. what they can do is a lot of damage to, to create an infrastructure and kill civilians. do you think we're going to see an escalation and the level of force that the russian military is prepared to use? yes, i think certainly in terms of our tillery munitions and mr. how's residents will fire an enormous amount of ordinance against the ukrainians, not just the military but against the cities, which will, which will destroy them and, and kill civilians. so, so yes, i think they,

the volume of munitions fired by the russians is going to increase them. and it's, it's going to be harder. military analyst and former british army general chris several. thank you. thank you, bye. a kremlin official has said russia will consider its military options, should finland or sweden join nato. finland shares a long border with russia, though a partner of the western alliance. it's officially non aligned. if that changes to meet the med today, dave of russia security council said it could lead to further militarization of that region. he hinted at deploying nuclear weapons and other offensive weaponry. the western officials believe that is already the case. for more i am joined in the studio by t w. russia, desk correspondent vladimir espionage. welcome to the program now at pittman

spokesman and has said that if the that the russian president will consider a range of measures to boast of russia security if finland or sweden join nature, which measures should we expect? i think it's a bit too early to talk about concrete measures, but we've already a very symbolic video on a couple of days ago for russian rockets being transported towards from line to store some few months. it was made on a street showing the street signs to health and keep in the us and rockets are passing by, so it's highly symbolic step on from the russian side, i would expect russell would put more troops on the border of finland, more sweeps more military to the baltic sea in the, in the clear report escalation between ross and the best. so it's clear it through the step on this collision collision. yes, it's certainly a concern to have enlargement of nato has long been seen by vladimir putin and his

government is a major threat to russia justified or the fears is tonya block, their joint model, 2004 and no one think anything can create the direct border between us for us in the countries is tonya like 2004. and that was not a big deal. so it was a kind of protest from moscow, but it was quite, quite at the same time rushing region of green grass was created between poland, lithuania, another, not a member, quite surrounded by any other countries and it was not processed. the whole thing begun with the orange, what is in the ukraine, 2004. and if you're the 1st idea being float by the western part, parts of ukrainian join not. and so the, but not the membership of smaller countries like is tonya later. they thought it was not such a big deal for us. is it possible not the membership of the ukraine? i was, all of this is being perceived within russia. am by, by the public. is it being discussed at length or is to sort of well, you know,

it's a very good question. i spend like more than 40 years of my life and nursing, and i never talked to anyone of my russian friends and ross and my russian family about not the membership of any country because it was not topic for anyone. so for the parts of, for the even bigger parts of the us and political establishment in moscow. not with huge because not that is like united states. so it's the direct link to the what the washington and to this global global global reality with the united states, but for over a national public. it wasn't until now, not it was not a big deal. so if you talk to, don't ever trusting people on the streets on your family, they're just not thinking about it. this wasn't nonsense, a lot of mere se, se paul, for from d t overuse russia service. thank you. here are some of the other headlines on the war in ukraine. ukraine says it is reopening humanitarian car doors to ally the evacuation of civilians from war torn areas. 9 routes would be open to the east and

south, including one from the perceived city of new paul. the reopening comes just a day after they were closed on safely grounds. austrian schanzer karl ne. huh. says vladimir putin told him on monday's meeting in moscow that russia would not turn off its gossip, lie to austria. mamma says austria can also continue to pay russia in euro's austria, gets 80 percent of its natural gas from russia, and opposes an immediate e embargo. usually ukraine's trains have played a central role in the country's defense against the russian invasion. they move people out of harm's way and bring in supplies and aid. russia has bombed some lines, but the trains keep moving thanks to tireless operations. he believes rebecca ritters met up with one of them. when russia invaded ukraine, yvonne was on duty travelling his regular route for more than 10 years. the train

conductor serve passengers between separation in the southeast elevator in the west, a 5th day now a journey. but on february 20 full life changed forever. as dawn broke news of the invasion broke to hugo block, a woman started to cry and said, have you heard anything? i said, no. she said that bombing me pro. i didn't believe it. i started to check facebook to check the news village, and it turned out that there was bombing all around ukraine. we arrived late to separation and we were told the evacuations would start. 11th, cavaliere will pull the reports since then they haven't stopped. and neither has yvonne has worked every day and every night. now he lives on the train to russian troops have occupied his town. those 1st days with a hottest bow. yes, those are bodies over the train was already full and slippery. joe. when we arrived

in april, the platform was packed so many people, but only, and cale started women children. there was so many in the carriage, william, at least a 100 to 150 people, were voiceless. both spoke with louise. little. what with train's get people out, but they also get aid, eat to where it's needed. ukraine couldn't fight this war without the railway network. it has more than 230000 employees in all of them have stayed on the job. despite the danger. over 60 railway workers have been killed in the line of duty as trains come on to rush and fire. that hasn't happened to yvonne, but the work is taking its toll. the will of her it is very hard, psychologically. when you go back to separation in an empty carriage, and you hear sirens on the stations or the feeling so so with worrying dreams,

i'm very tired, but as a morally oh and there's little rest and head that isn't the railway needs me for half a year so i can't be called for conscription, which means they will not make me join the army. once that time is up, i'll be drafted. i will go to wool until then ivan will be fighting for his country doing what used to be just a regular job through the stations and towns he knows by heart. crossing his homeland at wal devastating floods triggered by heavy rains in south africa's durbin area, have claimed over 300 lives president, cyril rom, oppose called it a catastrophe of enormous proportions and blamed climate change. the death toll is expected to rise. a search and rescue efforts continue. the water has gun, but the damage remains. 2 days of heavy rains and flats destroyed thousands of

houses in and around the city of durban. major infrastructure like roads and bridges, simply washed away. so as you drive through durban, you come across many of those landslides, like this one here was you can see in the middle of it, there was a house that was flashed away with the lance light. there was a family staying in their grandmother with her 3 grandchildren. one of the children managed to get out all the others passed away. the youngest child was just 3 years old. neighbor loom deal in the ne, still trying to get to terms with what happened. she was inside when the soil started moving and the family home collapsed, killing her 10 year old cousin as under it felt like my house was that the dozen pieces she wasn't badly,

girl. joyful, always happy laugh if do i around the corner authorities set up a shelter in a school. thousands became homeless overnight during a visit president sewell ram up was up promised help, knowing that the limited resources of the states won't reach every one. and knowing that this will not be the last disaster. they have been similar flats in the area in the past. yes. this is obviously is part of climate change. it is telling us that the climate change is serious. it is here. we no longer can postpone what we need to do the measure we need to take to deal with climate change yet and how. what do um management capability needs to be at the high level needed nina hopes for

assistance from the government, but doubts, she will get. it's everything the family own. she says is gone. like many years she tries to stay optimistic, but more rain has been predicted for the easter weekend. here's a round up of some other world news headlines. police and germany have arrested several members of a far right group on suspicion of plotting violent attacks to inside civil unrest. prosecutors say the suspects wanted to kidnapped germany's health minister, carlota bah. and to blow up the power stations out about as being a target due to his support for restrictions on public life during the corona virus . pandemic equation was in the business man in a mosque wants to take over twitter in a bed worth $41000000000.00. the tesla, c e o has proposed to buy 100 percent of the company's stock and turn it into

a private company. the offer comes just weeks after mosque became the company's largest shareholder. police in new york have arrested a man suspected of shooting 10 people on a subway train on tuesday authorities a 62 year old frank. james will face federal charges for a terrorist offense. new york police commissioner said he was detained after a tip off from the public to will, anchors prime minister has offered to meet with protesters, camped outside the president's office. they're calling on the government to step down over its handling of a foreign currency crisis, which has led to food shortages spiraling prices and hours of power coats every day . the government is due to start negotiations on an international monetary fund bailout next week. wow, angry she lengthens are out on the street. an unprecedented economic crisis has pushed these people to gather outside the president's office in the capital city,

columbia shouting slogans, reading placards, and demanding change. wow. i'm the one the raj about the family members. hope you buy key positions in the should and condemn and including that of the president and the prime minister to resign. we believe their family rules then the court is him and blatant of corruption are responsible for this economic collapse. the people of the island nation have been facing regular power cuts, food and medicine shortages and soaring prices of essentials. long cues outside patrol and diesel stations had become a common sight. as the country it runs out of cash to buy fuel. the crisis has brought people together. it's a paper spread as this is not politically motivated. i'm not of any party. and i don't think anyone here is this. the 1st time all of sri lanka has united against

politics. this crisis has affected everybody stomach. so everyone is out on the street, irrespective of cost creed, really generic economic backgrounds. a shilling, concede, they want accountability, transparency, and a responsible government to control the unrest on the streets. a nation wide coffee and a state of emergency was imposed briefly, but that barely the 3rd the but after that you lankin prime minister. my hinder lodge bucks are, is now appealing to the people for bees and support being that the government is working round the clock to resolve the economic crisis. but it is obvious that the government has lost the trust of the public. economist roland summoner, juba agrees that economic situation has been severely mismanaged by those in power . we are in excessive debt and it's very clear that in order to to be able to pick this debt, we have to bring in dollars. if we cannot pay any more debt,

we need to seriously negotiate with our people to whom we owe money and we have to get the economy functioning of the i back at the thought is site, the crowd only increases as the sunset is not the one. with people of all ages joining in a gun, do we have a lot of challenges? so we thought we would need and make change. and so that we had come here to be able to be about to be solid and to be to be about the demonstrated look determined to stay here, to keep a bare protest till they see the change, the hot even a heavy down poor as the evening progresses doesn't dampen bester. you're watching dw news, his reminder of our main stories. u. s. president joe biden has approved $800000000.00 and additional military assistance to ukraine. the package includes heavy artillery as the country prepared to defend itself against

a massive russian sold expected in eastern europe. right? ukraine says its missiles have knocked the flagship of russia's black sea fleet out of commission. russia has only acknowledged that a fire on board seriously damaged the missile cruiser bribe. well, that's it from me for this. our up next is focus on europe. and remember, you can keep up to date on the latest use on our website, d, w dot com. i'll be back again at the top of the next hour and take care of with with

you a touch of normality in the meeting still for the stoles in again, keith. the war is not over yet. on the outskirts of quiche, volunteers continue to prepare for focus on europe

next, on d, w into the conflict zone with sebastian fresh allegations with russian forces murder, ukrainian civilians outside kiev rapidly found their way to the un general assembly because russia really care what the world thinks about its invasion. my guess this week for moscow was perform a deputy for a minister under a few other conflicts own in 60 minutes. on d, w. o. people in trucks injured when trying to flee the city center and more refugees are being turned away at the board. families flane's bomb attacks in syria and these credit going in this way against them is trade people fleeing screened around

a raft. getting 200 people has sunk in the gmc around the world. more than 300000000 people are seeking refuge. we ask why? because no one should have to flee. to make up your own mind. d. w. for mines. ah, this is focus on europe. i'm labriola nice to have you with us. disjoint buildings and mass graves, cities and lives are in ruins, as rushes war rages on in ukraine. places in the east and south of the country are under heavy attack as the war enters

a new phase in the don bass region. who is true.