ah, ah ah ah visits dw news live from berlin, ukrainian fighters under siege are defying a russian ultimatum to lay down their arms. ukraine has proposed direct unconditional talks with russia to save the lives of soldiers and civilians. still trapped in the city of mario pole. also coming up, foreign minister and alana bab, book analysis, germany will hold all russian oil imports by the end of the year to pan french

presidential candidates faceoff, and they're only debate before sundays runoff election. manual macro and far i challenge a marine le pen clash of her links to russian money. and his record of running france. ah, i'm will also a very warble come to the program. ukraine says it has proposed a special round of negotiations to save the lives of those still trapped in the besieged port of mary jo, pole. ukrainian negotiators say they're ready for direct talks with russia and evacuating the cities. remaining soldiers and civilians. ukrainian troops in maria pole had been defying russian demands to surrender the city. recent efforts to open humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to leave have been largely unsuccessful.

chechen soldiers on patrol in matter you pull into distance as of style steel works, russian soldiers are here to. they've hung red flags along a possible route for ukrainian forces who wish to surrender. their fight for control of their city may be almost over. send us another segan. this is our appeal to the world, but this could be our last appeal of our lives may be facing our last days. and if not ours, the enemy, ag numbers of 10 to one. but in keep ukraine's president followed, they made it to lansky speaking alongside european council president charles michelle remains defiant. duck. she, clothes, muddy. hopefully all our guys and matthew paul want a victory shoot. they want the city to be liberated orders, book known is going to surrender to the enemy as the, the so that's how they feel. that's who they are to. that's what's inside their

souls. the key yet, given the eve said it was to go through. in moscow, russian president vladimir putin said russia would work to quote, normalize life in ukraine's eastern industrial hard land nodding. it would change for the better lashelle than persuasion to wander. but back and my tuple life is far from normal. these residents are evacuating a city that has been traumatic for weeks with. he is with martha live. we need a break after the shelling after this nightmare. we've been hiding in basements for 30 days. oh boy. so we want to go to my son's house. he's waiting for me. mom, when are you coming? he keeps asking me. i have a son, a daughter in law,

on the granddaughter. i bought a ticket just before the war, and then on the 24th of february, it all began. and almost 2 months later, the war continues. these residents don't know when they will be able to return. as the battle from under you pull, rages on. germany has about to hold all impulse of russian oil by the end of the year. foreign minister on elena bab, oak made the announcement after meeting with the account to pass from estonia, latvia and lithuania. bab oak also sent an unequivocal message of support saying nato allies could rely on germany, 100 percent. mind them entity, i want to hear god. oh, to day, the 4 of us are sending a clear message to moscow. if we will defend peace, i sovereignty and freedom owned not to nato will collectively defend its territory and protect you every corner of

a mines. i'm sure. so how feasible is it for germany to stop russian oil imports in 8 months? has political correspondence, simon young. for she was going to be very tough indeed, because sir around 35 percent of germany's or oil imports come from russia. and we seen how sensitive this is. the j g markets are with the price, the price of energy commodity shooting up just on the announcement there. that pigeon was going to invade ukraine and the prices have stayed high. even though, of course, at the moment still the oil and the and the gas is, is still flowing if it goes on like that, or indeed, if the supply is reduced, that could push prices even higher. that'll cause pain for german industry and for german old re, german citizens. they've been shopping around for other places to get oil from. they've done some deals. supply deals with the other supplies, for instance,

the states in, in the gulf. but you know, none of that can be changed very quickly. so it's an ambitious target. having said that, if they could do it, it really could be effective because this is the money that is financing pigeons war. and of course, if you are in that war quicker, well that in the end would be good for german business, which is one of the key concerns. when you're looking at this situation from berlin's perspective. political correspondence, i'm a young reporting that now in the 1st weeks of the invasion, russia seized control of the nuclear power plants at chernobyl. the site of the world's worst nuclear accident. it was the 1st time that soldiers have occupied and nuclear power plants as part of war weeks after moscow's forces. left reports continue to merge off the reckless and extremely dangerous actions they took there . this is one of the most radioactive places in the world. yet the more

than a month, russian soldiers lived here, digging deep into the contaminated soil of the chernobyl exclusions own ukrainian officials say that bunking down in the zone, so called red forest manned up costing some of the troops there lives. horrible militia, there are 3 little corporal in the red forest where russians dug trenches, ally, they lived here, only breathed in dust. here, usual cooked their food, and set fire's hair, a hoodie. look for a while when the thought so gross was burnt, and they inhaled burnt substances you with the holy, which hang a 3rd of course it will damage their healthily fixer. it will kill some of them slowly for thug legs, and some of them will be, will die quickly. ah, dick, which with go with it but rushes occupation of this site, but more than the lives of its soldiers in danger. for a time, the d commission plant was cut off from the power grid and forced to rely on diesel

generators to keep critical safety systems running, sparking phase of a new nuclear disaster reaching well beyond ukraine when russian troops hurt left at the end of march. they looted offices some report li, even stole highly radioactive materials, possibly to sell ukrainian authorities still unable to monitor radiation levels at the site off to soldiers, also stole the systems main server. chernobyl was never ready for a military occupation with the russians gone for now. and the anniversary of the 1996 disaster approaching authorities are working to make sure it will be more prepared in the future. now to some of the stories making news around the world, israeli warplanes struck the gaza strip overnight after palestinian militants fired for rockets into southern israel. it's the biggest escalation between hamas which governs that palestinian territory and israeli forces since the last since last

year's 11 day war strikes followed nearly a month of deadly attacks and clashes. no casualties have been reported. israeli police blocks and unauthorized right wing nationalist march in the muslim quarter of jerusalem. authorities refuse to give the rally permission to take place a citing security concerns. tensions have been hi, after israeli security forces clashed with palestinians at the holy site. important for both muslims and jews. a wildfire has forced over 2000 people to flee their homes in the u. s. a state of arizona. strong wind, triple the size of the blaze. fire consumed forest areas and destroyed some buildings. the region has been suffering from a decades long drought. the 2 candidates in france's presidential elections incumbents, emanuel macro and far i challenger,

marine the pen, have squared off in their only televised debate. wednesday night live event was one of their last chances to convince undecided voters ahead of sundays run off election. the candidates clashed on issues ranging from russia to the and head scarf. macro is currently leading the pre election. a shake. don't put the discussion of a russia and the war and ukraine produced a fiery exchange. d w is lisa, we has more pull at one point. am i my common sense? you know, we know that marina pen, i understand supports the referendum that happened in crimea, that got the next by russia a few years back. and the, that referred him that was held there is actually internationally not recognized by marina pan has recognized that you know, to, to split up from, from ukraine. and as she also repeated that stand point,

if you weeks back. and my call also accused marilla pan of being quite close a wanting to be quite close to russia and of having taken up a loan with the russian bank before the last presidential campaign. and he said, you know, this means that actually you depend on the russian government and you are not independent. marine the pen of the said, no, i am independent. i also support your stance in this war in ukraine. i absolutely reject the russian invasion, although she also added that that she was against an embargo on russian oil and, and gas because that would have a large impact on spending power in france. and that is something that she wanted to say that she cared about in the selection. lisa, we reporting now the taliban announced a band on puppy cultivation and afghanistan in early april. but weeks later, it seems that that isn't being enforced. the reasons centers around the

indisputable reality that even the taliban has recognized cultivation is for many afghans. the only way to earn enough money in a shuttle economy. the brown mass oozing out of this pompey plant is extremely valuable. and right now its harvest time in afghanistan, farmers are collecting the raw material necessary for opium, morphine and heroine production. but in early april, the taliban forbade poppy cultivation butter choose. i will, if this plant is bound from cultivation, my friend that we will be forced to steal. i like it doesn't make any sense to harvest of the crops, like mays, all pomegranates. they don't do yielding of profits to live off, and that's why demanded johnny machine. we visited these farmers just as this year's crop was being harvested for 28 years. mohammed tanya's family has been cultivating opium. the extremely dry climate in south afghanistan is ideal for the plants tide our credit. but we started planting opium because we don't have enough

water. all the necessary equipment for the crops shows that the people are poor and opium is profitable. the. this farmer tells us he has 25 family members to care for . he has many children. he also grows grapes, but that's not enough to make ends meet. these bags contain his valuable product and this is the market where the ra opium will be sold. and it's the place where local drug lords meet. they smuggle the opium to pakistan or iran. from there, it is refined to heroin and shipped around the world, including to europe. the dealers are not happy with a ban on opium cultivation. di war doc, we told the taliban, they had to do something for us 1st. if they want us to stop selling opium was actually one moment by the still number. in early april the taliban announced they were immediately banning the cultivation of opium. but the deputy minister for

taliban drug policy tells us this law is not being enforced. proposal would refer, as you can see from our announcement, we said that for the moment we will not be taking action against pharmacy planted opium this year. if we do this with him, many farmers will suffer great problems. list were, was good on deal, which gladly, in 2020 afghanistan was the world's largest opium producer, responsible for 85 percent of global production. according to the u. n. the $1011.00 tax the cultivation and trade of the crump, earning millions of u. s. dollars and helping finance their wor, something they have never officially admitted. a john bonnie explains to us why the taliban are trying to band opium production. his institute collects data and research is drug cultivation in afghanistan. the objective is certainly to get the approval 1st of the international community hopefully move closer and closer to the

recognition of the regime, which is very important for them because it would then allow many other revenues to fluid. oh, so when the taliban minister confirmed this in the interview, he said the world has to help us. we asked them to take notice and stand by our side of that. so for me taken, ah, i just got it is a thought they were great. you.