over the world to see the staging of the biblical story. and this time it's more up to date than ever. oklahoma go village and it's passion. centers distorts july 3rd, 4th, d, w ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin. the annual summit was a group of 7 leading democracies gets under way here in germany. in talk with host chance or all of scholes, u. s. presidential biden's stresses the need for the west to stay united in its response to russia's unprovoked invasion of ukraine. also in the show explosions,

rock b, ukrainian capital in the 1st apparent russian attack on here. in nearly 3 weeks, the city's mayor says the blast shook a historic central district, and a residential complex was on fire. we'll have the latest remark correspondence ah, i'm marian evans, dean, it's good to have you with us. brushes, war against ukraine is said to dominate the agenda as leaders of 7 leading industrialized democracies. meat in southern germany. german chancellor, olive shoals is hosting this year's g 7 summit before its official start. he held bilateral talks with you as president joe biden. the meeting of the world's richest nations is focused on how to maintain unity in the face of russia's aggression and

how to keep up support for ukraine over the longer term. other issues such as energy security and climate change are also on the agenda. russia was once a part of the group, then known as the g 8, but it was expelled after it invaded an annex ukraine's crimea region in 2014. today's meeting is set to be a display of unity and resolve against russia. as the u. s. and german leaders underlined this. sure, we have this study with clicking on joe when we get to commercial messages with no small port

because we're now joined by the w. brussels bureau chief alexander phenomena who's at the g 7 summit venue in the bavarian, al, hello to you. and with me in the studio is d w. political correspondent, thomas sparrow. alexandra, why don't we begin with you? we know that germany has been criticized for not doing enough to support ukraine after russia's invasion, but today we actually heard the u. s. president, calling germany one of the fastest and closest allies in the world. what do you make of these comments? well, i think that 1st of all, of course, we have to stress that germany is one of the closest you asked allies. and this a brief and well orchestrated exchange also showed how important it was for you as president to praise all of shoulds leadership. despite the criticism that the german government has been facing for doing can now sir,

to support ukraine for being too slow with providing ukraine with lethal weapons or something that is happening now. but i think it was obvious that of course you as understands that germany is a heavy weight in europe. it was germany together with friends and e to lee they threw their weight behind the idea of granting ukraine you membership candidate said with and of course they were successful. and of course you asked on the sand steps to descend the signal of unity from the g 7. it's important also to of course, to support and to praise the host of this g 7 meeting here, mel elmo. and it is german in germany is of course crucial to make this summit a success and thomas, just how significant is this hosting of the g 7 summit for germany and how does it

impact the standing of the chancellor or how it impacts the standing will depend on what results come out of the g 7 summit. what we're here after, all those different discussions that they're holding. or we can certainly say that it's very important for germany, and in particular, fort chancellor of shows he has only been in power for a few months. actually, he took power from angola, merkel in december, and basically all his time since then has been taken over by the situation in ukraine by the war and ukraine. so it will be important for him to demonstrate his cloud to demonstrate his influence, to demonstrate, to what extent he is a leader that can bring together other international leaders to the table and they can come to agreement. so for him, it was particularly important, but he heard from president biden, the fact that president by more stressing not only how important the relationship between the u. s. and germany is in general. but also a president by was stating that all our shows had done

a good job so far in precisely trying to shore up that support. so all in all, i would say for germany, it's remarkably important. this summit in our mouth or the concrete results, we will have to wait and see what they actually discuss. right, something else that they keep talking about and stressing all the time is this idea of western unity and the faith of rushes aggression. alexandra, despite this talk, are there any concrete and joint plans to somehow increase the pressure on the kremlin or is it just talk about unity? well, i think of course this topic is at the top of the agenda to hold flooding if wouldn't accountable. and to ensure that the costs for him are rising for waging the war on ukraine in ukraine. and what it seems to be happening is that the g 7 seems to have, they seemed to have a plan to move forward with regard to more sanctions on russia. the u,

as has already announced that together there with the u. k, with japan and canada, they will be imposing a ban on russian gold imports. at gold is a central, a central asset for the russian central bank. and we heard today from the european council presidential michelle, who told us that the who is considering such a band that they are already working for to, to make it happen. so this could be a possible concrete outcome during this meeting. i also ask him whether they could be any concrete announcements on other important issues. let's have a listen. thank you alex, on up on them from the w and a very important topic on the agenda and you just mentioned that is foot security and urgent topic. do you expect any concrete announcement because there are many

states of the routine, ian saying that we need vault measures going beyond just calling on russia to unlock the ukrainian points? think on, on food security rate, we don't need speeches, we need actions. we need to decide we need measures and have a clear vision about what are the different strokes are the 3 that we need to develop together. we so badness in france, in the framework of the g 7. first of all is important. to meet every scene which is possible in order to unblock the black sheet is deposited at our 20 to turn. so took $22.00 millions of tons of groups that are currently blocked in the, in the black sea. and it's, we're, we are totally committed and you are making to lot of efforts in support of antonio to terrace and united nations or to mature the took sooner or later. and i hope as soon as possible, an agreement. so it will be possible to the, to make possible for ukraine to which sport are through the black sea, the grinch we shall blocked in ukraine. at same time, we felt waiting for

a possible agreement. we are very active together. we sir, our number susan, order to use alternative route through poland through ammonia, and through the 20s. all right, so shy michelle talking about food insecurity in the measures that say european countries might be able to take to remedy that and challenge. alexander, what did you make of his remarks? well, i think it was clear that the european union, together with its partners already working to solve the issue and to do everything that it's possible to, to have that beast be successful there at the same time as i understood his remarks, that there is no simple solution there are some proposals on the table pours calls on russia to unblock the ukrainian ports. there are so proposal saying that say you were up or even ne, to shoot, get involved in the mining at the torturers there in the black sea. however,

of course, you know that a ne til a is, doesn't want to get involved in the conflict. so this is a very difficult matter. and my understanding was that there is no simple, quick solution there. now on the tail and thomas, i mean, alexandra, you know, touched upon this short of confronting russia militarily in the black sea. i mean, is there any, anything that can be done to, to not have this food crisis unfold around the world, in the wake of russia's invasion of ukraine is a lot that can be done in particular to get ukrainian grains out of ukraine. one thing that's been done already is trying to find alternative routes to somebody with germany alongside other european countries trying to do, for example, by transporting some of those grains by land on trains. but that is a particular challenge. just give you one example, the rail trucks in the ukraine, not the same as in other countries, that there are significant issues there. another option is if they can't get that,

those grains out of ukraine and is not forget, there's another harvest coming in. the next few weeks, whether alternative sources or those drains can be found, in other words, whether other countries could step in to fill the gap. and here some of those countries could play an important role in the g 7. just to give you one example, argentina is also an important producer of grain. so can argentina, to some extent, fill the space that ukraine has left because it can't export it's grades. those are issues that are going to be discussed during the g 7. whether they will solve the problem completely, that's not clear, but they could help to make sure that food insecurity is not a big problem. as some experts have been wanting, experts are really warning and we could face a very, very big challenge of ukraine. one of the world's biggest produces of grain could not export its products or with so many challenges stemming directly from this war

in ukraine. is it? is it to be expected that all the other challenges facing the world will be neglected at this g 7 summit? alexandra, will they have time to talk about anything else? well, actually, you know, one important peak was supposed to be at the top of the agenda climate change and how to tackle climate change. of course, it was before the war started. now we're seeing the consequences. this war is having on the global economy with soaring energy prices rising inflation. so actually, dad is no front and center of the agenda here. however, we are also hearing from the you as administration. they say that there is no watering down of climate commitments and the german chancellor has also invited partner countries here to almo, to make sure that this topic will stay on the agenda. he has invited them to, to join a kind of climate club to make sure that they can work together to tackle the

climate change. it was definitely breathless bureau chief, alexandra phenomena who's and the g 7 summit in southern germany for us. and thomas farrell, political correspondent, thank you so much to both of you. well, while the g 7 liter is need for a talk at amazon castle anti g, 7 protests are taking place in the streets of a town near buying. demonstrators are demanding swift action on climate change and an end to the use of fossil fuels. they're also groups calling on wealthy nations to tackle global poverty and inequality with russia's war and ukraine. dominating the talks, demonstrators are marching for peace. and also marching for cons to military spending. earlier i spoke to deb lee correspondent benjamin of r as gruber,

and i asked him about the situation at the protests the purchasing damage petition pretty close to elmo castlewood, the g 7. this summit is taking place. the situation is very calm, but the police, they don't want to take any risk when it comes to security. they want to prevent any type of destruction of violent protests. so there's a very, very heavy police presence around that venue, even for people who arrived here from munich. many of the protest this a took the train, a trained trip here to damaged packages and protesting. but as it was the case yesterday in munich, where organizes expected 20000 people and they were around 4000 by police, the situation is quite similar here with many small groups arriving by train and protesting against the summit. was interesting to see the, you know, the live pictures behind you. there are all sorts of banners and flags being waived

. so benjamin who are the protesters and what they want they've many, several demands as yesterday. they also protest against a, the measures that the g 7 leaders are taking saying that they are not taking many problems seriously enough like climate change. poverty like hung up on friday. there was this a bigger conference is global aligns for food security with some pro to standing in front of germany's foreign office saying that the leaders are not doing enough many here protesting against weapons export. they saying that their imperialistic forces, some even falsely claiming that the 7 leaders are preparing for a 3rd world war. many of them are saying that specially this industry allies, countries should rather talk a with the global south and not just about it. so some of them are calling against weapons exports for ukraine. others are calling until what they call against.