ah ah this is t w. news alive from berlin? russia pounds, cities in eastern ukraine. a regional governor says many are killed by shelling in this chance. ukrainian forces are battling to fall off the russian onslaught. also come ukrainians are ready to die. for the european perspective. we want them to live with the european dream. russel's backs ukraine's big food candidate status, bringing it one step closer to joining the union. also on the program,

the u. k. government says julian assange can be sent to the us to face spying charter wiki reeds. founder has been fighting extradition for over a decade. but his supporters say his battle is not over here. ah, i'm michael ok. welcome. 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 lou hans says heavy showing by russian forces in the city of lucy chance has killed many people as russia fights or brutal battle for full control of neighboring sever dynette. it is increasingly shifting its focus to lucy chance last city in this battleground region that still under

ukrainian control. 5 yesterday, at these 4 people were killed in a rush, an air strike on a building that was sheltering civilians. d w rebecca readers is in keven, updated us on the situation in the see just ah, well 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 severe shelling and multiple debts 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 scented now for some time that city is more or less under russian control, although not entirely, we do know of course, that there are some ukranian fighters and civilians hiding in the as a chemical clump there in that city. we've had some new figures as over 500 civilians hiding there, including 38 children in that plant. but people sang now is absolutely no way for

escape. there are no bridges, there are no roots out of that city. and so nothing short of a sci fi 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 mc ally of which is kill 2 people, an injured at least 20 others on the ukranian side, they claim to have bombed a tugboat for a russian tug boat that had weapons and soldiers on board. so the fighting continues, but as we know, this is a slow war of that is taking a huge debt top, but moving slowly in terms of territory. rebecca, the u. n. is saying the humanitarian situation in use of ukraine is extremely alarming. their words paint a picture for us of what the situation there is what i think the situation has been alarming for some time. i mean this is 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. there is 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, have 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 over the cities in the eastern part of a dumbass 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 no access to clean drinking water and things like that. so definitely at the civilians. all the losing the most in this war, having to live in the absolutely di conditions. he's 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 and ursula funder line, said that ukraine must carry out a number of political and economic before 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 fund alliance 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, a 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 and not the end of the story and the decision to be taken on $24.00 bought it for us, it's really important that be 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 a for the last years. some other developments now related to the war in ukraine, british prime minister pores johnson has been to keep a day after 40 leaders visited ukraine. he met with president for a lot of his lensky to discuss further military and economic aid, including special training for ukrainian forces. it's johnson's 2nd visit to keith

since the war began. russia has reduced its natural gas. it exports to europe for a 3rd consecutive day flows to italy. in slovakia have been cut by half and deliveries to france have seized completely. european leaders have called the move political while russia is blaming the cuts on a technical problem. russian president vladimir putin says his country is not to blame for rising global food prices, w, speaking at the international economic form and st. petersburg village recruitment instead accused the united states of driving up crisis. lee, the president also slammed the sanctions imposed by the u. s. and europe area as reckless and insane through with that. okay. you said either with britain has approve the extradition of wiki leagues founder julian assigned to the united states who's wanted there on 18 criminal charges including spine. washington says

a sons' endangered lives by releasing troves of classified military records and diplomatic correspondence. saunders wife stella morris, called friday's decision. a dark day for this was the press, freedom and british democracy. and his vow to appeal the decision at britain's high court. she says, washington is trying to punish her husband to the revealing crimes of corruption aid him. now, earlier i spoke to rebecca vincent, director of operations and campaigns for reporters without borders in london. her take on the british government's decision. today's decision was sadly unsurprising, but absolutely shameful. so we are disappointed the u. k. has once again failed to act in the interests of press freedom and journalism and seems to be bowing to pressure from the united states that 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 in the 1st place. ah, so now it's come full circle up, but it's not over because we are very likely to see an appeal that 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 you watch? well, i thought it was a political decision of the home office, a to green might the request which then became a matter before the court. and so then we had nearly 3 years of legal proceedings. we at our s f, monitor 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 and assumptions favorite 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. but we have serious concerns that 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 u. s. 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 in press freedom by his own well being of he is indeed sent to the us. rebecca, some listening might say drilling a sondra leaked 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 liter documents

exposed information in the public interest, war crimes, human rights violations, and other issues that the 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 extradition 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 was 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 orders. many thanks.

parts of western europe are bracing for a crippling heat this weekend with temperatures in some areas expected to rise above 40 degrees celsius firefighters in spain are already battling a series of force fired smoke rises over the spanish countryside as multiple forest fi as erupt across catalonia spain has been sweltering under severe temperatures for almost a week. the earliest, some a heat wave in over 40 years. the country is already battling severe droughts brought on by an unusually dry winter and spring. now, surging temperatures have sparked a series of blazes that firefighters a struggling to contain and experts warn that the heat wave is spreading. neighboring france is bracing for weekend temperatures as high as 38 degrees,

10 to 15 degrees higher than the seasonal average. alyssa, but upon yeah, it's not the 1st drought, nor the 1st heat wave in southwestern france, but we've never seen such an early an intense heat wave in june before going can you saw outdoor public events have been banned in france's south west while a jump in the use of air conditioners has forced the government to import electricity from neighboring countries all across europe. the summer heat waves are happening more frequently and lasting longer. shannon says it's a sign of global warming. this is obviously triggered by human activity and we now see that this new climate we're experiencing is becoming more intense and bringing us the stifling heat. as the rest of europe, braces for soaring temperatures, fire crews in catalonia, worked through the night, hoping for a break from the brutal heat. in football,

news by an munich have agreed on a deal to sign. saudi monet from liverpool in a deal worth 41000000 euros. the bonus league or champions made their move after monet recently announced his desire to leave reds after 6 glittering years. money is considered one of the world's best forwards. having helped liverpool to 2 major trophies last season, as well as leading synagogue to glory at this year's africa cup of nations. the eurovision song contest organizers say next year's event will not be held in ukraine because of the ongoing war. instead organizes urine talked with britain to possibly stage the competition there. traditionally, the event is hosted by the previous years were but due to the fighting and the complexity of staging this live televised vent. the organizers say it is regretfully not feasible. ukraine's collusion orchestra one,

the 2022 contests with their song to funny. ah, coming up next on d. w, we have a documentary looking at libby as migrant detention can stay with us. 175 years ago. the young start up entrepreneur at a specific goal. 1 build the best article instruments in the world. good size and indeed his wish has become a reality. 175 years of size starts june 19th on w.