starts may 3rd on d, w. ah, this is d w. news live from burn lane, ukraine's president says a new phase of the war has begun with russia launching the battle for the don bass . the criminal has declared capturing the region to be their main goal. also on the program corresponded meets ukrainians, trying to rebuild their homes and their lives. russian soldiers may have left a peen, but this is a city that's been left in ruins. there isn't

a building we can say that doesn't at least bear some scars of the war, and many are ruined. beyond repair. residents of keys, suburbs, find solace in the clean up. living with the fear that the russians might return. and more, coven 19 death. in shanghai, the virus continues to spread in china's most populous city, despite a week's long locked down that confined millions to their homes. ah! i'm fo gail. welcome to the program. ukrainian present thought amiss. lensky says rush has begun. what is called the battle for the dawn bass. russian troops are spent days regrouping and now appear to be engaging in a full scale ground offensive along a 500 kilometer front in ukraine's east and south. after suffering,

set back surround key, the kremlin declared its main goal to be the capture of the don bass region in the east of ukraine. shots fired on the front line. ukraine says these are some of the opening salvoes of rushes, offensive from the east. in 40 drill east by the ukrainian defense ministry, troops say they are ready to defend the don bass. let them come. this soldier says summit them up. they will stay here forever. there is enough land to bury them all ukraine's president said, this was the start of a new phase in the war. that is, the more that we can now state the russian troops had begun the battle for the dawn about for, for which they hadn't been preparing for a long time. soon as he or a significant part of the entire russian army is now concentrated on this offensive, no matter how many russian troops are driven there, and we will fight, we will defend ourselves and we will do it every day that we won't give up any

thing ukrainian green school navy, the more ah thousands of residence and now trapped in towns under constant shelling this woman lives in the remains of a village near the front line. she describes living in anew, no man's land, missouri so that when you buy, we don't even know where the shelling comes from. here we wait for it from there. now thinking that the ukrainian army will protect has it, then it comes from there. you know that there shaylee from all directions that one with russian force is in control of much of the east and south. one pocket of resistance remains the as of style steel plant in mario poll, ukrainian fight is holding up here. say russia has dropped bunker, busting bombs on the complex, but here as elsewhere, ukrainians are refusing to seat any of their territory without a fight. like are responded,

mrs. willinger is in the ukrainian capital cave. i asked him what he was hearing about this latest russian assault. yeah, the ukranian authorities have established that this was the beginning of the assault is mainly coming from the north. from the town of ume, that's one town that's in between don boss and harker, and it looks like the aim would be to move south from there and then cut off the forces that are east of that a. yeah, we don't know, of course. what is going to happen and how well the ukranian army is prepared? but what we do know is that they have expected this for a long time, and that they have tried to prepare, as well as possible for, for, for quite a few weeks now. and all this discussion about heavy weaponry that we've been hearing. the delivery of new weapons, all this was meant to fight back an assault on don boss from the russian side.

right. and whatever, mary of paul, we've been following a events event for weeks in the pentagon says a scene of concentration of air strikes and artillery. there yeah, we know that the, the last parts of the ukrainian army that are still in the city are in this steel works is gigantic, still works. that was a symbol of the city and they are staying there. there's a huge bunker underneath a system of tunnels and civilians are also hiding there what we've been hearing, but it's unconfirmed. is that many of the civilians are the relatives of the soldiers because they are afraid that they might be a target for the russian army. as well, um it seems that the army is still there in this very small part of town and it's heavily bombed. we've seen pictures. but for the moment it's as it has been

a war of attrition, a very cruel war of attrition. and where you pull, right and, and how likely is it that ukrainian forces will be able to defend mary fall and keep the russians out? well, the only way to do that would be another offensive from coming from another side. and, and this opening a corridor breaking the blockade of the city. we haven't seen any offensive in that direction. we haven't seen any preparations for that. so it seems that the ukranian army is not able to do that at the moment. and civilians of course, caught up in all this how they dealing with this increase in hostilities the ukranian authorities have called upon civilians to leave these areas and on boss that are likely to be the theater of the next escalation. we have also seen that there were trains to bring out people. we don't know how many civilians

are left there, but from what we've seen in the war before would within him and maria paul and north of kia. is that this is a war that spares no one and that's it's, it can be extremely a cruel on civilians as well. so most people would probably be well advised to follow this, this advice by the government. thank you for that. with his willinger in keith, russia shifting the focus of it's offensive to the dumbasses prompted people in other parts of ukraine to return to their homes. what's left of them? they w, correspond to rebecca ritter's travel to the city of ear pain, where residents have begun to rebuild. despite the constant fear that the calm may not last one thing that strikes you when you enter a pain is the silence. these once bustling straight, now scorched and deserted,

then sometimes the silence is broken. by the sound of people trying to put their lives back together. i have nothing on my route. 300 square meters of roof is missing. above 4 of the apartments, there's nothing but the blue sky above the post. the senior neighbor ogre is the caretaker of these $82.00 flats. and she lives in one of the top from over there to my apartment is in this part of the building that was damaged by missiles. she stayed right through the occupation to try to save them from russian soldiers taking them over, but was helpless to stop the missiles. no, not over. now, it is in this state. the house is uninhabitable until we rebuild it. or do you more next door to olga, another group with a similar story. they tell me this wasn't the 1st time they've had to flee. one of putin's was 11 year old. here i made me live here as

a last resort. do you understand what many of us are from done bass we came here from war just to simply live and war came here after us. i think we are peaceful people. we don't want anything bad. we just want to live what law horror knew like you were brought the human robert. the most important thing is that it doesn't happen again. person could come back at any time even tomorrow. they're building was also badly damaged by rocket fire. one woman shows me where her flat used to be . several, almost filing a. this was my bedroom and there was a balcony behind it larger and now there is no balcony there at all or so from my things where they are like a little away says which of which i know it's gone. oh, but on the wire, russian soldiers may have left a peam, but this is a city that's been left in ruins. there isn't a building we can see that doesn't at least bear some scars of the war and many

a ruined beyond repair. while the physical clean up is underway, the emotional scars will take a lot longer to heal. for many who fled when the war broke out, they have little left to come back to. but for those who stayed behind many will have an even bigger recovery to contend with the i. if the wall comes again, i will survive in any case. i will always survive because i have a bare and he protects me near sky one. yes, this is shad yards. the shortness i still get frightened by every loud noise which i don't know if it will ever go away. but for now, and that's how i am more than less your ordinance a talk, the not so silent trauma that may live on in their lives forever. a quick look at some headlines away from you. cray. israel says it's warplanes have

struck the gaza strip after these rating military intercepted or missile fired from the palestinian territory. hamas which controls garza acclaimed. israel hit empty sites. the incident follows a weekend of israeli palestinian violence in and around jerusalem's alex, a mosque. police and pro have begun to destroy more than 16 tons of illegal drugs found over the past 4 months. the looting clergy cocaine, coca paste, and marijuana approves one of the world's largest cocaine producing countries. u. s. government will no longer enforce the wearing of masks on public transport. it follows a ruling from a federal court in florida that the directive is unlawful at over turns a key white house effort to reduce the spread of cov 19 move prompted several major airlines to drop their mask mandates. that are to china, where officials have reported another 7 deaths linked to covey. 19 in shanghai,

i made a wave of infection driven by the army kron variant. this comes a day after officials announced the 1st 3 fatalities since the city went into lockdown 3 weeks ago. most of the more than 25000000 inhabitants have been ordered to stay in their homes, turn a strict response. a result of its 0 coverage policy is being met with increasing resentment. will 10 deaths in the population of 25000000 doesn't sound like a major outbreak? i asked of correspondent to 5 encroachment a reliable those official figures are i mean in general they are reliable. i'm, however, i wouldn't take them at face or well because of one problem, the transparency. so we don't know exactly where the criteria of a win or what defines a corporate death in china. am. so we know from several other dis in, for example, nursing homes for elderly, aware several, at least

a dozen date date. and they don't shop in the statistics. however, the context is also that an infection numbers are not extremely high am. every day we have 20 to 30000 infections and i would guess at most of them are probably all of them are m spotted quite early because and every other day and all of the 25 or almost 26000000 residents of shanghai get tested out by tpc artists, not antigen tests. so i think i am the numbers themselves are quite accurate and, and because they are spotted so early, the death rate i would say, is probably a little higher than the official data, but not much higher. right. and how successful has the government 0 coverage policy been where i think the tides are turning right now, am until quite recently, several months ago. and people were quite satisfied with the z recovered policy because it has made em the everyday life quite, you know, without hiccups. everything was quite normal, but now with the army crunch and the lock downs have you know or caught mock

frequently. and what we see in shanghai now is really the dark side of the c recovered policy. and people are afraid of am, you know, food supplies and people are also dying because of either underlying conditions. but they cannot get medical help on time just because of the restrictions. i mean, you cannot just simply leave your a residential compound. you cannot just enter an a hospital without a negative p. c. artists. so there's a lot of frustration because of those. so basically the collateral damage right now is much higher than the death told by the virus itself. subbing crunch my reporting from beijing. this is the w news. life from berlin has a reminder about top story. easton ukraine has sustained a heavy shelley. as president lensky says, the russian military has begun the battle of the dumbass and the southern port city of mario paul, russia has been bombing the massive as of style steel plant. in an attempt to force ukrainian troops into submission. terry martin will have more world

news at the top of the our next to on d. w. close up as a report on people trying to fight climate change in the world highs to quote with a.