hulu, ah ah, this is the w 9 from berlin. the united states is sending weapons worth $800000000.00 to ukraine. the delivery includes heavy artillery and helicopters, washington hopes the additional reference will help ukrainian army with palo russian in the offensive in the east. also on the program, but ukraine says it's miss how's that knocked out one of russia's most important black c warships. russia has only acknowledged that the moskva has been seriously damaged. and at least 300 people have been killed in south africa after

a heavy rain swept away homes, roads, and bridges around presidents, cyril rom, oppose that has promised aid for survivors. ah, i'm fil gail. welcome to the program at u. s. president joe biden has approved an additional $800000000.00 worth of military assistance to ukraine. the package includes heavy artillery and helicopters as the country prepared to defend itself against a renewed russian assault that's expected to target the east of the country. satellite images show large convoys of russian military vehicles converging on the don bass region. mar, you, poll is in ruins. after weeks of russian bombardment, the u. s. as 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 don bass region. so you what 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 rushing 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 c of yet 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. god. every 10 or 15 minutes in bam. bam bar. yes. i live on the 7th floor of a 9 floor 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 put asleep. 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 . let's get the latest from d. w. correspond that young phillip schoultz who's in the vase in western ukraine. oh, welcome yon for that. let's start with this american announcements of $800000000.00 an additional military assistance. i'm guessing that's been well received. baron ukraine. it really is. the ukrainians are extremely great for the to the u. s. 800. so a 1000000 us dollars and heavy artillery and other equipment is very important for the ukrainians, especially in the light of a possible and major offensive in the east. as you know, president lensky has praised president biden on several occasions as a true leader. and this is also reflected by the public opinion here in ukraine.

people really think that the united states and ukraine's western neighbors, especially poland and the baltic states about through allies in this fight. this is in stark contrast with the public opinion about germany. of course, a lot of ukrainian says c, germany is a current position as to, to his distance at the moment. right now you've just returned from the port of a desa, which russia sees as a significant at target at what did you see there? well, a desa is getting prepared for the worst. indeed, it's a very important city. it's highly significant, culturally, economically, it's a port city. it's the major port, city of ukraine. but also from a military perspective, i talked to a high ranking officer and in odessa, and he said, sir, the military is very well prepared for a possible offensive. and what i also found astonishing is the courage of the local

residence in odessa, they left no doubt that they are ready to defend their city to the last and the town of my cat, if i to the west of her can keep another town which ukraine has retaken from russian forces. what did they leave behind that? yeah, i visited sir the town to day and sir, they left behind to pure horror. you can say destruction and human suffering. the may, i said at least 130 people died and i could see with my own eyes that i would say at least half of the city is completely destroyed. the stories that the local residents told us terrible. one man said that his neighbor was trying to dig a grave for his dark and russian russian soldiers. i saw him doing this. they ask,

what are you doing? he tried to explain it to them. this is a grave on my doc. and so just just said, well this is your own grave now, and sir shot him on the spot. and so what i also found is quite interesting that a lot of local residents told us that they witnessed increasing internal conflicts as they described it among the russian army, some a higher ranking officers. oh, well, obviously also irritated by the extreme fragility of some soldiers. so there seemed to be a lot of frustration that ended up in a lot of destruction and a lot of human suffering for the people there. i thank you for back to yon. phillip shrugs in division. when your cranes trains have played a central role in the country's defense against this russian invasion, moving people out of harm's way and bringing in supplies and aid, russia has bombed some lines, but the trains keep moving thanks to the determination of their operators. the w is

rebeca. richness has been talking with one of them. when russia invaded ukraine, yvonne was on duty traveling his regular route. for more than 10 years, the train conductor served passengers betweens aperture, in the southeast elevator, in the west, a 15 hour journey. but on february 24, life changed forever. as dawn broke news of the invasion broke to youth oma blanca, 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, and it turned out that there was bombing all around ukraine. we arrived late to separation, and we were told the evacuations would start in them. cavellas will, will they ever put since then? they haven't stopped. and neither has yvonne his worked every day and every night.

now he lives on the train to russian troops have occupied his town. those 1st days with the hardest bow measles of bodies over the train was already full and separate reacher. when we arrived in april, the platform was packed so many people and kale started women children. there was so many in the carriage, william, at least a 100 to a 150 people voicemails full slip, elizabeth louise, little. what with trains get people out, but they also get aid in to where it's needed. ukraine couldn't fight this war without the railway network. it has more than 230000 employees. nearly 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 under rush and fire. that hasn't happened to yvonne, but the work is taking it's 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 of all 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 as 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 war 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. let's take a closer look at this river. alexander commission, who is that c e o of ukrainian railway. so welcome to dw sir. how much damage has the network suffered? actual of the cheap shalon, the railways,

the shams racks, and so bridges, bailey, and daily. we start from at least one station tool to re stations but week you prepare them and we keep running on the schedule and it's important to keep the trains moving. definitely because there's the lifeline of the country and that's the lifeline of do passenger traffic. and of the common that they don't eat and are people making normal journeys these days go, going to work for instance, or is it all about the evacuation i and, and supply no indeed. 2 weeks ago we got back to selling tickets. and since then we started with 7000 tickets a b, and now it's about 40000 think it said the compare 270000 tickets

a day before. so we're getting back to normal life in terms of selling tickets. right? because it's looking at the, at back of the country from outside, you get the impression that the whole country as it was but, but clearly it's different in different areas of the country. indeed, they keep shall and starting from east, from grammar doors, and, and with live iep in the west, but indeed, east stop for us much more. and so you know, that the rest of the russian for the read from told that they whoo, shall you. if something happens, but again, we tried to get back to normal operations despite the fact that the russians to sell and all this they want on the conflict. and so this sounds like dangerous work . you know, you talked about how the russians keep shoving the the trucks and the bridges and you go out and fix it. we've been hearing about how people are scared to even go out of their houses sometimes. but you guys go out there in order to,

to fix that. the railways, knowing that at any moment you might get hit, you know, after they are real army, real women are the 2nd army of green i would say. and indeed, we stopped, or a player and death threats to wants to sheylan is over and in few hours we are ready to go on to move on. and you know that costs us. we lost 94 people from railway ma'am. and 99. our injury. that's really the highest price we paid for this war. but all the rest, the infrastructure, i mean, would be restored at one the and, and how does that work then? so a bridge is blown up. do do ask for volunteers because it's dangerous work or to people just heard him say, well the bridges, bridges is down. let me just get on with it. well, we ma'am, do all the job ourselves and the easiest breach takes us

a week. the hardest one so far it takes us a months when we wish you well and thank you so much for joining us, is having to shoot your story. i alexander commission and ceo of ukrainian rice. thank you so much. thank you. bye. now let me tell you about these contradictory reports about the fate of the mosque, the flagship of rushes, the black sea fleet ukraine says its missiles hit the vessel, causing it to think. russia has a knowledge serious damage to the ship, but says it's being towed back to port after catching fire, or cru board. the service here, a missile cruiser have been evacuated, if ukraine's claims are correct. it would be a serious blow to the russian military. as he turned out, this new ukrainian postage stamp was prophetic, showing off just hours before the incident by president body minister lensky. with

the message, the russian warship always has only one direction. russia blames a fire for the damage and says to ship is still afloat. ukraine now has a slightly different take i want to get better senior. when you put up in the black sea region, the most war ship was hit by next year and ship massaro sustained damage. the fire started the other ships, tried to provide assistance to storm and the powerful explosion of ammunition turn the ship payback started sinking stuff done with the mosque that came to prominence at the start of the war being told to go f itself. when he tried to capture ukraine's snake island in the black sea, i was

in the last month, the man behind those words was awarded a metal for his bravery. initially fit killed, he and other soldiers were taken captive before being freed and a prisoner exchange. the moscow with the main shipping rushes black sea fleet, armed with 16 cruise missiles, as well as long range defense system. if you cranes claim is true, that defense system appears to have failed catastrophically. let's pick that up without the www. russia analyst a constantine, get in vilnius. so welcome constantine. so this is a flat shape of a flagship of the black sea fleet. how significant is its loss, whether it by be by ukrainian fire or by faults on board? well, it is very significant filled because almost the whole last bog,

which you used to be called sla glory in russian in the saw the is the only or maybe even was the only water ship in the black sea deflated to the civilian. knew that was the only ship that could conduct operations in the open ocean and globally. all other ships are much more and have much more limited capacity. number 2, if it's true, that 16 missiles world war that is probably about one 5th of the whole christmas style arguments that the black sea fleet pans. number 3, of course the, the, the, the, the slob of the, the most gloss was modernize. it was, it was a very important ship for fortune because it was actually supporting rushes operations in syria in 2015, 2016. and then it went the very,

very profound overall modernization between 20182020. so essentially you have a modernized, upgraded, cheap, which was, which was not hit by miss. so look, this is not a tractor. it takes yes, to reconstruct rebuild it. i am, frankly speaking, i think the, the, the only the only benefit is for those who i have no doubt about the budget organization. now they're better than this one. now, just shifting subjects slightly. moscow is accusing ukrainian forces have categorized as strikes in russian territory. i'm what can you tell us about this because this, this, this looks like ukrainian forces to being so much emboldened if it's true if it is true, because i do think that it's always kind of a bid on a hazy, the greens are in great in the grey zone, these news about ukrainian strikes on the russian territory. i think ukrainians

deliberately maintained what, what i think is cool, plausible deniability about these things. but you can have 2 ways of looking at it . one is that ukranian ascending, not very subtle message to the russian. come on those that if you undertake this major offensive, in the se about which president lansky spoke, recent, you're in for very unpleasant surprise. but then there would be another version. if russia slaying it up, it may be preparing the public in russia for some kind of very address, again, from the very, very cruel and unusual action by the russian forces. in a quick word about russian energy. a new countries have been looking for ways to win themselves off. russian gas imports on thursday, president putin and said russia is going to be directed supplies towards asia. do we believe that if he simply being pragmatic, you will be getting ready ready to,

to pull the plug if i may, because i have been a little time expressing very personal opinions since ben, dana, and budapest said that europe all day, at least these 3 countries germany hungry and austria can do without russian, andrew without russian gas, that in both the porter put in, seize the weakness and always use of it flips it. i do not think it will be very easy in reality for the crumbs to switch it like that. russia will suffer very much . thank you so much for that. it's very clear. i. d, w, russia analyst, a constantine, i get as within hearing ukraine's bracing for a new russian offensive and in the east, after suffering major losses and fighting to take the capital key from moscow appears to be shifting its focus to the don bass region. russia back separatists of control parts of the don bass in 2014. i may now try to seize the rest. president

putin has expressed a keen interest in this area which orders russia zulu one young manual of the goals are perfectly clear. they are noble. i said from the start back in my 1st public statement on this operation. the main goal is to help the people in don bus numbers . vladimir putin claims key of is committing genocide against russian speakers in the dumbass. there's no evidence of that, but it's been one of russia's justifications for the invasion all along. the dumbass is ukraine's old industrial heartland, dating back to the soviet era. it's already seen, years of fighting. the region is largely russian speaking and seen by the kremlin as more russian than ukrainian. the dumbasses mainly comprised of the 2 large lou hunter and, and yet screens that border russia to the north and east. the shaded area here shows the territory seized by russian back separatists in 2014. russia wants to

extend that control to the whole of lance can done yet. so. carving out a sizable chunk of ukraine must go, could then annex the area as it did with crimea in 2014. but perhaps the biggest single prize in the dumbass is maddie. you pull the main easton port that has been under russian siege for weeks. the city itself is largely destroyed, but russia wanted to capture it to link up rushing controlled areas all along ukraine, south east coast, and create a land bridge from russia to crimea. capturing the whole of the dumbass would allow putting to claim mission accomplished in ukraine. but analysts sworn, he could be a long and devastating conflict. and a quick look at a couple of other headlines in this war. a russia has warned that it would bolster its defense as if sweden and finland adjoined nato. a crime that says of latimer bruton is to be shown

a list of potential measures designed to reinforce his country's western defences. in saying whether these measures would include the deployment of nuclear weapons. and ukraine says it reopening humanitarian corridors to allow the evacuation of civilians from war torn airs. the 9 routes in the east and south included one from the received city of mario. all announcement comes just a day after they were closed on safety grounds away from ukraine. devastating floods triggered by heavy rains in south africa's durbin area of claimed more than 300 lives president, civil, rama poser, described it as 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 landslide. there was a family staying in their grandmother with her 3 grand children. 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 it doesn't pieces. she has it badly go. joyful, always happy laugh if the one around

the corner authorities set up a shelter in the school. thousands became homeless overnight during a visit. president sewell ram up was up promised help, knowing that the limited resources of the state will reach everyone 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 area it is here. we no longer can co what we need to do. the measure we need to take to deal with management capability. needs to be at the higher level will be the nina hopes for assistance from the government,

but doubts she will get. it's everything the family own. she says is god like many years she tries to stay optimistic, but more rain has been predicted for the easter weekend. and a couple more headlines away from the war attack billina, ellen musk wants to take over twitter in the bid, was $41000000000.00. the tesla c e o has proposed by 100 percent of the company stock and turning it into a private company is offer comes just weeks after he became at twitters largest shareholder. and british, by mister barish, johnson says tens of thousands of people seeking asylum in the u. k. could be sent to rwanda to be resettled, is that the agreement with the east african country would tackle illegal immigration and that migrants would be humanely removed. opposition? labor party, supplant, is unworkable and unethical you international stand. coming up next in d, w. news, asia hunger in shalanda as an economic crisis,

pushes the country to breaking point movement bought from colombo day in jakarta, we meet the people who controlled with the traffic of one of the world's busiest cities. but as a john will have those stories and more in just a moment and i'll be back with well, well there's at the top of the i'm good with

the touch of normality in the meat still for the stores open again in key box, the war is not over yet. on the outskirts of keys, volunteers continue to prepare for focus on europe in 60 minutes on d, w. mm. what secrets?

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you're watching d w news asia coming up today. unrest continues and sri lanka with protesters and the government add an impasse. what is the way forward for the country in economic and political crisis, we take a closer look. the 1st tropical storm of the season for the philippines leaves behind death and destruction. and managing jakarta, infamous jams will meet a man with disabilities and.