starts july, 2nd on d, w a. ah, ah, this is dw news live from berlin, russian force as ramp up attacks on eastern ukraine, the governor of lou hon. success, everything that can burn is on fire. as a russian missiles, rain down ukrainian fighters are still holding out at a chemical plant in several don. yet also coming up a diplomatic crisis escalades between russia and lithuania. moscow demands that the nato member left a rail blockade on sanctioned goods to colon and grad. and an anti semitism

controversy overshadows germany's documentary ard show organizer is designed to remove one of the works on display after it. triggers fears, criticism ah, under cough really could have you with us chilling words from the lou hunsicker regional governor. everything that can burn is on fire. around 95 percent of that region is now under russian control. zeroed onions is a focus of the attacks. a fierce fighting ukrainian force has said they have held a chemical plant in the city were about $500.00 civilians are thought to still be sheltering. the lieutenant governor has also warned that russia is preparing an even bigger offensive in the region. despite their relent is on slide ukrainian,

president volunteer. zalinski remained defiant in his nightly, addressed to the nation. jak, yet he put it by chance for a she. russia is very nervous about our activity. looks like there's been more shelling of ha keith and odessa to have be more brutal of salts and the dom bus says little. this is an evil that can only be defeated on the battlefield. finishing will were defending lucy chanced and 7 o 2 and yet only this whole region is the most difficult ship. these are the hardest fights a short while ago i spoke with the w responding, emmanuel, charles, and keith. and i asked her whether ukraine can still turn things around as russia had tightened. the news in the east? well, exactly, nicole, russia is, are throwing in all of its reserves in or what is expected by you, by the ukrainian armed forces to be decisive battles for follow hands for donors, for this entire don barza region, which russian troops have sought to,

to conquer. a over the past 4 months, a bit of a breaking news here with who is finally d, arrival of how with how it says that were promised by germany and our to ukraine was asking for 4 months now. they are, they have finally arrived. it has been announced by ukraine's defense minister alexey leslie. cough. he said that he really appreciated all the efforts of his colleague or the german defense minister, christine lam, breasts in support of ukraine and defiantly as well. he said, our artillery man will bring the heed to the battle field. so heavy weapons that have been asked for for months now by ukraine finally on the ukrainian territory with the army. or did you create an army that was awaiting those weapons to finally respond in kind to the russian troops. now we talk about military ede and military advances, but of course we can't forget about the human toll of it all. what do we know about

the feet of the civilians trapped in the epicenter of the fighting? well for example, you were mentioning several done yes as a chemical plant there the other chemical plant where it is believed to be between $3600.00 civilians chopped there, including dozens of children. we find ourselves in a situation that we are sadly already know of was the as of style as steel plowed in matter. you ball where civilians are trapped are so people in several done yes. get done. have any means to get the out of the city because all the bridges have been destroyed as well as the main highway leading to the city. so no way out and also no way in for supplies. electricity is cut off. water supplies are cut off, not only dare, but in many, many places in the eastern part of the country, which are currently occupied by the russian aggression. and you yourself spent the past the last couple of days visiting the keys suburbs,

some of them associated with, with the worst horrors of the russian aggression, namely european hostile mail. can you tell us a bit about what you saw there? well i for one, it was a very impressive to see the extent of the destruction or with my own eyes. it's one thing to see reports. and also for journalists, then it's another to be on the field and to see at the amount of the destruction are to also see that even 2 months after the, after russian troops retired, retreated from those places. well, they are still, there's just so much things to be repaired, so many windows that are broken so many houses that are still not arbiter bell any more. and of course, the sufferings of the people is still there very much there to see very impressive as seen of devastation around keith as well. d w responded emma shars and key many things and he has

a round of other stories related to the war we're following for you. at this hour. russian president vladimir putin has dialed up the rhetoric on his war in ukraine. another notch without mentioning ukraine, directly. boot and said in a speech on tuesday that russia is newly tested nuclear capable, ballistic missile system, known as sergeant would be ready for deployment. by the end of the year the russian army says russian t v is now broadcasting in ukraine, southern harris on region. people there can now access 24 russian channels. a spokesperson said. moscow has already introduced its currency in the area and started distributing russian passports the editor of one of russia's last independent newspapers. dmitri moore at off, has auctioned off his 2021 nobel peace prize metal. the metal fetched a record $103500000.00, which will be donated to help children displaced by the war in ukraine. and

russia's foreign ministry has summoned the eas ambassador to russia over what moscow called a blockade on goods transiting throughly. throwing into the russian acts clave of kelly mcgraw with mania halted the rail transit of goods including construction material, metals and coal. after a new package of e u sanctions against russia came into force late last week. allen garad is wedged between nato members, lithuania and poland. or russia security council secretary warned lithuania of serious consequences if the ban isn't lifted. and here is what the lithuanian prime minister said, a response, the green odor, your blue ania has no interest in an escalation the sanctions must be implemented. it's ironic. here russia accuse us of international treaty violations. because i don't know if there is any international treaty that russia itself hasn't violated wrong, is russia, analysts and former moscow correspond, and emily sherman is here with more the lithuanian prime minister. they're not very

well worried apparently about those threats. how concerned should the west bee about those warning? well, the secretary of russia security council warned of serious consequences for the lithuanian people without saying what those consequences would actually be. we heard from a lower level official, the governor of the region of cleaning god, who actually said that one potential response could be that russia could limit the transit of lithuanian goods in a kind of tit for tat response. but of course, the language that we're hearing, especially higher up in the food chain as it were in the kremlin, is much more dramatic. so i mentioned security council secretary, he framed all of this as essentially the next step in nato. upping its presence at russia's border, as he said, that it's an example that you cannot trust the west even with written promises. and of course, is all happening as well against the backdrop of kind of combat of language

language. in general, we heard vladimir putin himself talking today about the deployment of new air defense systems and ballistic missiles. so it all sounds pretty dramatic, but i would guess that it's more rhetoric bluster than anything else. what is moscow trying to achieve here? well, as part of, you know, a wider push in russia to get you sanctions lifted and to paint them as destructive . so the governor of the region of cleaning grad, who i just mentioned, said that these new measures would suffocate the region. he said that over that around 40 to 50 percent of cargo will be completely stopped by these measures. and you know, the fact that they're calling this a blockade. your has echoes of the siege of leningrad world war 2 tragic events in world war 2. i think this is a part of a wider effort to put pressure on the west to lift sanctions. in general, you might remember that putin has been calling for sanctions to be lifted. that

he's, he's been saying that that would make it easier to solve the food crisis. we've had a recently the russian energy giant gas from kind of reducing its shipments of gas to germany via north stream, one of the pipeline saying that it's due to technical difficulties which were caused by sanctions. so it's kind of part of that wider effort. i think to, to put the pressure on the west and to and to get those sanctions lifted. now give us a bit of context on a geopolitical scale. how important is colleen and grab? well, it's a, it's an enclave in the baltic sea. it includes a very strategic port, both disk, which is the headquarters of the baltic sea fleet, and also is the stern most point in russia. and now of course, specifically, you know, with the war in ukraine and russia has been painting this conflict in a way as a conflict, a wider conflict between russia and the west. so the fact that the enclave is kind of sandwiched, as we saw on that map between nato states, makes it almost the,

you know, the battle ground for, for that conflict as well. for the west, between the western russia at least, that's how russian state tvs portraying t w's. russia analyst, emily, sherwin, thank you so much for those insights. ellen, take a quick look at some other stories making headlines at this hour in south africa, residence of johannesburg. so wait, oh, town ship have held a noisy but peaceful protest at the city's mayor mayor's office, to demand better services for their district once a by word for the inequalities of apartheid. they called for an end to power cuts as well as or better drinking water and sanitary provisions. for lanka has shut schools and non essentials state services for 2 weeks and an effort to save fuel. the nation is in the grips of its worst ever. economic crisis calls for the president to resign are growing louder as people faced severe shortages of

essential goods. nearly half a 1000000 people have been evacuated in southern china as the heaviest rains and decades freak. havoc, bread alert warnings were issued on tuesday with forecasters predicting more heavy down force. last summer, catastrophic flooding and central china killed almost 400 people. or do you sell it on? a renowned german art show is removing one of the works on display over its anti semitic content. the controversy around the piece has overshadow the opening of the documentary on modern art exhibition, which is held every 5 years in the city of casa officials and organizers have condemned the work in question. a giant banner using anti semitic stereotypes to portray jewish israelis. this is the image that is causing widespread controversy, a hooked nose fangs on blood shot eyes paired with the site. carls traditionally

warned by ultra orthodox jews. the image is part of a work of art. by the indonesian collective tart, p a t i. it took center stage at the document to holland castle. these, this building does is he had ski it. this illustration clearly has anti semitic imagery, protection against anti semitism, as well as protection against racism and any form of misanthropy of fundamental human values. long and if those values aren't respected then the freedom of expression in art has its limitations. koonce fire dealer gunther, in the same work of art, a man with a pigs. nose is depicted as a member of massage, the israeli foreign intelligence service. this too is an anti semitic stereotype. the israeli embassy reacted by tweeting documents and promotes global style propaganda. marin mandel is the director of the anne frank educational center. he's equally appalled and demands that the artwork be removed. it's martha. she isn't.

we also need to question exactly how such a picture was created in the 1st place and then how it was allowed. such a prominent place in the exhibition or the ins aren't open ended dots in there are still in the lower part of the artwork. are depictions of massacres and genocides. the holocaust is notably missing. the central council of jews has been highly critical of this. they said document as organizer is guaranteed, there would be nothing anti semitic in this year's exhibition. clearly, the organizers have failed when it comes to the topic of anti semitism. the exhibition has denied any connection with anti semitism and apologize for any hurts caused that for me, news asia with melissa chan is up next. but 1st, we'll treat you to some images of yoga devotees around the world, practicing their us and us in celebration of international yoga day and joy and now musty, ah

ah, with c w, crime fighters are back that africa. most successful radio drama series continues and all episodes are available online. and of course you can share and discuss on d, w, africa's facebook page and other social media platforms. crime fighters, tune in now are in asia and artic lovers guiding.