a d w ah ah ah, this is did all the news live from berlin defying hooton's warning, finland and sweden move a step closer to joining nato villains president says his country is entering a new era a day after russia's president called the idea. a mistake. also coming up, ukraine says it's the 2nd largest city is the secure, once again. ukrainian soldiers clear villages on the outskirts of high keep after russian troops withdraw. and lebanon holds its 1st election since the countries

economy collapsed. many voters hope the vote will serve as a wake up call for the political elite. ah, allow monica jones welcome to the program. finland has confirmed. it will officially apply for nato membership is approved. then the additional finland were to double nato's border with russia. the application needs to be endorsed by the finish parliament, but that's expected to be a formality. sweden's governing party has also backed a plan to join nato, and there's one problem. nato member turkey could use. it's vito power to block the expansion. it's a radical break with the past one that was almost unimaginable just months ago. in finland's capital, helsinki prime minister, santa marin,

announced the country's decision to apply to join nato. after decades of non alignment, they have reached a day, an important decision in good cooperation. it when the government and the president of the republic, we hope that the parliament will confirmed that decision to apply for native membership. during the coming days. it will be based on a strong mandate. finland shares a border of over 1000 kilometers with russia. after russia invaded ukraine, public opinion based in part on fears that it's easter neighbor would do the same to finland, moved strongly in favor of joining nato. this happened as foreign ministers from the military alliances member countries met in berlin. nato secretary general appeared at that meeting via video link. he welcomed finland's decision and encouraged sweden to follow. this would be

a historic moment. their membership in a 2 would increase our shared security. the most with the naples door is open of aggression does not pay the meetings. host german foreign minister, and elaine of babbar added an enthusiastic note. she leaned on finland. if you are ready, we already feel like one potential problem. turkey has expressed reservations about letting the 2 nordic countries join anchor a blame them for sheltering kurdish activists. that turkey considers enemies of the state. there should be absolute security guarantees here. this is not just about to candidate countries, but also about allied states who need to stop supporting terrorist organizations. but officials said they were certain those differences could be resolved quickly. meanwhile,

nothing will change right away. the finished parliament must ratify the decision, and the nato application process could take up to a year. and from berlin, i'm joined now by our brussels guerrero, chief alexandra fall nomine, who has followed the nato meeting for asa, alexandra, a villain, formerly applied to join nato and sweet look so hot on its heels. what happens next? death, swedish prime minister said to day that a she will go to the parliament to morrow to make sure that there is a broad support for the decision of 1st swedish of the swedish governing party. and we also have to note that to the finish, parliament will debate the issued to morrow as well. however, we have to say that this is only a formality and that the majority in favor of finance and nato membership is certain there. but this is not the end of the application process. the finished

president will visits as talk home later at this week. and then we expect both countries to send their joint letters of public application to nato. so what about anchorage reservations? are they going to act or eyes? anchorage is going to sit and wait. what happens? while listening to the turkish foreign minister here to day and his oppressor, you could think that there are not ready to compromise. he once again accused finland and sweden of supporting ex, from his kurdish organizations. first and foremost, the p k. k. that is considered a terrorist organization into rocky and also in the european union. and by the way, sweden and finland both pushed strongly against those accusations. turkey also wants both countries to lift their arms delivery bands

on turkey. so now the 3 of them will continue to talk and to try to resolve the issue with many here saying that there are quite optimistic that finally or eventually turkey will drop their objections. did others alexander, from nomine there? thank you so much. ukraine says the front lines in the east of the country are shifting. russia has made some gains and the dumbass region, but ukraine says it is waging a counter offensive on the russian held city of s. e m. keith says a russian forces retreated from ukraine, 2nd largest city harkins to shore up its defences of im, ukrainian forces have been clearing the liberated villages near her cave and residence there has started focusing on rebuilding their lives. well, did other correspondent amen. s. if is joining us, sir, in levin western ukraine now, and 1st of all, i would like to ask you about

a report we're hearing about russian forces firing phosphorus bonds are onto the asked of ta style as steel planter in maria paul, there's the footage out there. are published both by pro russian separatists and ukrainian authority. so what more can you tell us about that? that's right, or that ukrainian authorities have accused russia of using phosphorus bombs on the as a star steel plant. as we saw in this video that was circulating on social media, it has all the trademarks of a phosphorus weapon and russia has admitted before to using phosphorus weapons. so wouldn't be a surprise here. now this is a bomb that ukraine says. it's called the 9 m $22.00, s a grad, munitions, which is a phosphorus incendiary weapon. it can bernard several 1000 degrees fahrenheit and can cause serious burns. and the reason russia might be using this is either to

create a smokescreen so their troops can form a ground assault or to suck the oxygen out of the air in order to suffocate the as of stall defenders who are still hold up in that a steel plant there and rushes, trying to get them out to force them to surrender, or to take over the plant by force. now, phosphorus, munitions are not actually banned by international law, the united on a military population. it's not legal where russia says his hands are no longer tied because civilians have been taken out of steel plan and are you poor and are only finally against the as of regiment that remains locked up in that fortification. right. it does exactly what i wanted to follow up on a. is there any news on the ukrainian soldiers holding up there at that steel plant? the great president vladimir zalinski said that they're doing all they can to get them out of there. they're focusing their attentions. now on rescuing the wounded and the people taking care of the win is to the doctors who are part of the as of

regiment, but are not considered combatants because they're out of commission or because they're doctors who are helping the soldiers. so the creating grove government is trying diplomatic ways to create some kind of a prisoner trade with russia, which russia has so far denied. now the wives of those defenders are worried about them. they said in their minds they don't think they'll see their husbands again. but in their hearts they still have hope. monica, i did have your correspondence, ambien as if they're reporting for us from living in western ukraine. thank you so much. and you have a chance to la willa shoulds has suffered a setback in regional elections lately. now also in north run west failure, the election in germany's most populous state is being seen as a challenge for the government amid its handling of the war in ukraine. the conservatives are leading the pulse with 35 percent of the vote will have showed says the social democrats received more than 27 percent. the greens are in the 3rd

place, while the free democrats and the far right a f. d. a battling for 40 spots. and what does this mean? well, let's bring it in. and benjamin elder is gruber who is following the story for us in a frame is fairly a benjamin. what do you make of the projected results? it's indeed a blow for a chance, lola shawls. this is the most popular status. you just said it's an important state also in germany, it's economically pretty strong. it's diverse and it's seen as a setback. also, criticism forward all actually has been doing over this past month. polls were pretty tied between a the, the candidate of the conservative who is already the state premier who appears to still be their state premier for the next eh, next term. and also for his social, a democrat, political opponents. and to which about a possible coalitions because so far, none of them has the overall majority. that's right,

but now the ball is within the conservative party. they have 2 options. those. that would be a 2 options right now. the conservatives can either go into a coalition with the green party, the had a very good results, it with the selection. all they can also go into a coalition with the pro business after p patty. so there are 2 choices then as you just said, it was not in. it is not an easy evening for their probation as f d p. they need a 5 per cent threshold. a, the left party had to 2 percent, so not even close into getting it. but now of course, the conversations will start with a majority of people here and often was failure wanting this a conservative said premier i benjamin others group. they're reporting from the north friday, vist, failure, and election there. thank you so much. and the people of lebanon also went to the polls to day, amid low expectations that their boat could really improve the economy or significantly change the political landscape. and it is the 1st parliamentary

election since the economic meltdown over the past 2 years, as well as a massive explosion at to bay would sport in 2020. in a symptom, all the collapse polling stations across the country suffered power cuts on sunday . when for more on that election, i'm joined now by the double correspondent rebecca ritters, who is in bay rude. rebecca pulse a closed. what have you been hearing of from a voters? do they expect to see some major changes? how hopeful are they? yeah, i'm standing here outside one of the pulling stations in west bay route monica, as you can see behind may, it's sort of close for business if you will, the pulse. i've been close for just over an hour. now there's a really mixed feeling here in lebanon. in the late up this election, there's been, you know, people who really hopeful they really want something to change. there's

a huge section of society. i would say the majority of society of really fed up as you said, in your late in there, you know, people here have full and 80 percent of people are full and below the poverty line . you've got people that have, you know, they're not even in a big car think they can't get job. they can struggling food on the table money because these people really are in desperate this one hour of electricity from the government here every day. so people are really fed up, there's a huge ground. well, and there's a lot more opposition candidates in the vote than there have been in previous election because there's people who are just saying that's gotta be changed. the huge ground. well, for a change movement, but there's a whole lot of people who are really disillusion, say that they're going to boycott the poll because what the point they know that the same old elite, sectarian lead is going to be reelected anyway. the electoral system is really stacked in their favor. so you've kind of got a very mixed emotions. they have very mixed mixed feelings. i mean, i had one gentleman just earlier tell me that he really says,

because i've got to tell you they're really bad day to come here and i've been on the well, there was a ready, a bad day to day with, with power cards today of all days again, did that effect turn out in any way when it's not just to day people here are so used to living with power cuts. as i said, there's only one hour across the country. pretty much one to 2 hours of state electricity a day. people live on generators and fuel is very, very expensive to run those generated. so power cuts something that is, you know, people don't even look alarmed or shocked when the power goes out. they just keep carrying on with the business. i don't think that would have had any effect on the turnout. we don't have official turn out figures yet. they are still to be released by the interior ministry. the last we had from 5 pm, 2 hours before polls closed. they had that figure at 32 percent. now they were still some hours to go and they were still people lining up at pulling centers. but,

you know, if it remains around that figure, that's a very low turnout will certainly be very disappointing for all those people who are hoping for change. so you know, remains to be saying what happened and how many people came out today. mar, i'd rebecca, written their reporting for us for from a bay route to thank you so much. you're watching d. w. use. thanks for joining me. we got some hot tips for your bucket list, a magic corner hotspot for me and some great cultural memorials to boot w travel we go it's not a question of whether the next crisis will.