load it now i with this is dw news lie from berlin, russia pounds, cities in eastern ukraine. a regional governor says many are killed by shelling enlisted chance ukrainian forces are battling to hold off the russian onslaught. also coming up we want them to live with brussels back. the ukraine's bid for you candidate status,

bringing it one step closer to joining the union. also on the program, the u. k. government says drilling assange can be sent to the u. s. his face spying charges, the wiki league's founder has been fighting at tradition for over a decade. but his supporters say his battle is not over yet. aah! and a warm welcome to our viewers around the world. i'm michael. ok. the battle for control of ukraine's eastern industrial heartland. the dumbass continues to rage full force and the civilian death toll is rising. the regional governor of low hans says heavy shelling by russian forces in the city of lucy, chance has killed many people. as russia fights a brutal battle for full control of neighboring sever donetta,

it is increasingly shifting its focus to lucy checks. the last city in this battle ground region that still under ukrainian control. yesterday at least 4 people were killed in a rush, an air strike on a building that was sheltering civilians. d w rebecca readers is in key been updated us on the situation in this a chance. while the situation there, michael, as he vis describe, is worsening. i it hasn't been very good there for some time, but it is getting worse, having confirmation now of severe shelling and multiple debt so that we don't have a figure on that yet. that content by the governor of the region. now that says to city, lucy, chance is, this is the city of several minutes where the fighting has been santa. now for some time that city is more or less on the russian control, although not entirely, we do know of course that there are some ukrainian fighters and civilians hiding in the as a chemical plant there in that city. we've had some new figures as over 500 civilians

hiding there, including 38 children in that plant. but people saying now is absolutely no way for escape. there are no bridges, there are no roots out of that city. and so it is nothing short of a sci fi will, will mean that those people can get out of the city. we've also seen overnight some shelling and how to keep region. and we've seen an attack on the city of mich elia, which is kill 2 people and injured at least 20 others on the ukrainian side. they claim to have bombed a todd vote for russian tugboat that had weapons and soldiers on board. so the fighting continues, but as we know, this is a slow war of attrition. that is taking a huge debt top, but moving slowly in terms of territory. rebecca, the u. n. is seeing the humanitarian situation in use of ukraine is extremely alarming. their words pain, a picture for us of what the situation there is what i think the situation has been alarming for some time. and this isn't that

definitely not new. the situation obviously in the 2 cities that i've just described that are on the almost constant bombardment and shelling the situation varies completely. dia for the civilians, their people having to live almost entirely on the ground as the city to bombed. they're running out of food at access to clean drinking water and other utilities. you know, but it's not just in the cities that are at the center of the fighting all this at the cities in the eastern part of the don't back that have been captured by russian soldiers. they were heavily bombarded in the lead up to them being taken over and so the civilians there having to also live without access to humanitarian aid. they're running out of we have no access to clean drinking water and things like that. so definitely at the civilians are the losing the most in this we're having to live in the absolutely di condition job is rebecca readers many thanks. rebecca . the european commission is recommending that

ukraine be granted formal e u membership candidate status along with moldova. this would allow both countries to start negotiations with brussels commission president ursula funder line, said that ukraine must carry out a number of political and economic reforms. the commissions recommendation will be discussed by all of the blocks 27 nations at a summit in brussels next week. it follows an endorsement for fast tracking ukraine's candidacy by the leaders of germany, france and italy who visited keith on thursday, praising the progress already made by ukraine in adopting european standards funded line said the commission had considered it's decision carefully. and we all know that ukrainians are ready to die for the european perspective. we want them to live with us the european dream. early today. d. w spoke to august definition of

ukraine's deputy prime minister for european and euro atlantic integration. she told us how ukrainians feel about the european commissions recommendation ahead of the summit on june 20. first of all, we were nearly have a have a feeling of celebration here. of course, it's far not the end of the story and the decision to be taken on $24.00 bought it for us, it's really important that the come closer. and the position now is by european commission was approved unanimously by the members of the european commission. and they're there, they're very clear nasa drinking and understanding. and it's also a tribute to the reforms and a positive transformations we've been going through for the last 2 years. let's give you some other developments related to the war in ukraine. british prime minister poorest johnson has been to key for a day after 4 leaders visited ukraine. he met with president for lot of lensky to

discuss further military and economic aid, including special training for ukrainian forces. johnson's 2nd visit to keith since the war began. russia has reduced its natural gas exports. the europe for a 3rd consecutive day flows to italy and slovakia have been cut by half and deliveries to france have ceased completely. european leaders have called the move political while russia is blaming the cuts on a technical problem. the russian president, will you let me put julia says his country is not to blame for rising global food prices up. i'm speaking at the international economic form in st. petersburg wooten instead accuse the united states of driving up prices are the president also slammed the sanctions imposed by the u. s. and europe, as reckless and insane through what's that i would say is that either with britain

has approve the extradition of wiki likes, founder julianna's songs to the united states. he's wanted there on 18 criminal charges including spine. washington says assange endangered lives by releasing troves of classified military records and diplomatic correspondence. sanchez, wife, stella morris, called friday's decision, a dark day for press, freedom and british democracy. and has vowed to appeal the decision at britain's high court. what she says, washington is trying to punish her husband, pending for revealing crimes of corruption to assassinate him. earlier i spoke to rebecca vincent, director of operations and campaigns for reporters without borders in london. her take on the british government decision. today's decision was sadly unsurprising, but absolutely shameful. so we are disappointed the you. k has once again failed to act in the interest of press freedom and journalism and seems to be bowing to

pressure from the united states. so this was a political decision today. this is not the 1st time the u. k. government has taken a political decision in this case. this whole ordeal was started in july 2019 by a decision of the previous home secretary before pretty patel who greenlighted the extradition requests and the 1st place. so now it's come full circle up, but it's not over because we are very likely to see an appeal. the defense has stated it intends to appeal. so this could be tied up in the u. k. courts for some time yet. you say it's a political decision, what specifically prompted the u. k. court to accept this request from the u. s. well, it was a political decision of the home office to green light the request which then became a matter before the court. and so then we had nearly 3 years of legal proceedings. we at r s f, monitored the entire extradition proceedings in the london courts. it ended up very narrowly focused on mental health grounds late last year. and we had one decision

in a sanchez favor from the 1st instance court, which was then overturned by the high court on the basis of diplomatic assurances provided by the u. s. government, who we have serious concerns. i, even if those diplomatic assurances are respected, which there is no guarantee that they will be, but even if they are a sanctions, very likely to face harsh conditions in us prison. a very severe isolation, he'll be cut off from his support network, his family and others that he has here. and so the risk of suicide and the exacerbation of his serious mental health issues is very serious. there says not just a matter of the implications for journalism and press freedom by his own well being if he is indeed sent to us. rebecca, some listening might say drooling sondra, leak classified evidence. and in doing so, put the lives of americans in iraq and afghanistan at risk. remind us again why your organization of found this case so important. we fully believe that juliana

such was targeted for his contributions to journalism because those leaked documents exposed information in the public interest war crimes, human rights violations, and other issues that they had public had a right to know these documents informed reporting around the world. in fact, there are still stories that are being published on the basis of those legal documents. the u. s. government failed to prove in court, at least in the accusation, proceedings that there has been any harm cause to any one. it was more a matter, it seems of embarrassments, odd to the u. s. government. but this was 11 years ago. it cannot be argued now that there is any risk to anybody being caused by this information which should be in the public domain. it is in the public domain. and what's concerning is that julian, a sancho, cannot defend himself properly on that basis because the u. s. espionage act lacks a public interest defense. he'll be sent there to face while simply a 175 years in prison. and cannot defend that. the reason he did this was to act in the public interest, which is also very concerning. well,

the story continues. that's rebecca vincent, director of operations and campaign for reporters without borders. many thanks. well, it's one of the biggest art events in the world. and one of the most groundbreaking, the document an art festival is only held once every 5 years. and the german city of castle this year, it's being curated by a collector from indonesia. and they're turning the spotlight on orders from the global south. oh, this is not your usual art show. this documentary is about community and causes, like the hardship facing small de reformers in thailand. skate, bolting artists. tell a story. for the 1st time, the key rates behind documentary collective re, one group or from indonesia, they invited of the collectives who invited even more collectives from mostly developing countries. they call their communal philosophy, limbo. originally it means a shed rice bomb these low matter. it's

a formica letter term in, in, in here, but it's not our invention and we use it though, to refer to, ah, mechanism, how to co gufferson resources. the way in which we worked was everyone would contribute ideas and resources and a skill so that i don't like, i don't man from $54.00 artists and collectives. the invitations kept snowballing, hundreds of artists, if not more. and now exhibiting here in castle germany, including the indonesian collective who brought these cobbled figures, usually used at social justice rallies. a percentage of documents as budget is also being set aside to support grassroots artists initiatives around the world. like this, kenny collective, which pays tribute to life in an i, robot. slum it's about dignity. amid the hardships is, is the thought on to great. yeah. our strength,

our hope and our beauty is what we want to tell. not all of the negative that you hear. the news documentary is one of the world's leading art events. but this time, the art market is barely playing a role. although there are a few big names like aboriginal australian painter, richard bell. my message is probably m o that we should all be involved in more collective behavior. oh, well, because to each other as well. no. because to herself, so we've all got a long way to go to make the world a kind to place the problems. oh documentary big experiments is to see how much more we can achieve if we work together. ah,

shoot for d, w. use asia with melissa chan coming up next. and don't forget the website is there for all your latest news. that's at d, w dot com and we're also on twitter and instagram at d. w a. michael. ok. thanks for watching. ah ah, every jenny is full of surprises. we've gone all out to give you some time why they in the footsteps of the right people. i'm in europe northern most count to play with

free time in the line but still very much alive.