i asked the wine because no one should have to flee. make up your own mind. d. w. made for mines. ah, ah . ah, this is dw news coming to live from berlin, ukraine. warren civilians in the country, south to flee as its forces prepare for counter attacks. keith urges residence in russian occupied hassan to urgently aback you weight. so they aren't used as human shields. this comes as 24 hours of intense russian air strikes,

kill 18 in eastern new grade. also in the program and uneasy calm returns to sri lanka, activists say they'll occupy the homes of both the president and prime minister unless the discredited leaders are gone. meanwhile, opposition parties look to form a new government badge pans. prime minister meets with the u. s. is top level math, who delivers condolences over the assassination of influential former liter shins, hobby. ah, hello, i'm terry martin. good to have you with us. ukrainian officials are urging civilians in the occupied south to evacuate as its forces are preparing a counter offensive, emboldened by fresh supplies of western weapons. the announcement coms as rescue workers search for survivors after another rush, an air strike on

a residential building in the eastern doughnuts region, killing at least 18 people. a warning this report contains images. some may find disturbing. a body is carried out of the remains of an apartment building while traumatized survivors, lucon. it was night time when russian rockets struck this residential block inch a cvr, killing at least 15 and bearing others under the rubble. she's gone. now we are afraid of everything. we were afraid of the nights we're afraid of the day because we don't know what it will bring rushes offensive on the denette grey jan is terrorizing ukrainians who stayed behind pensioners and their pets caught in the crossfire. a ukrainian servicemen returned

home to find russian shows killed. his grandmother is gone. i have nothing to say lord, i should go incompetent myself. many elderly people are unable to evacuate, or simply refuse to even as life here becomes increasingly perilous. we won't kill my grandchildren are due to me. one of them is 13 years old. and another one as 3 months old. i asked him to leave, so they don't see it at all. they ask me to leave to leave the house and go. i say no, i grew up here and i will die here. this is my motherland, this is my town that this mine. i will not leave it to the water with the label. in his nicely address, ukrainian president followed me. zalinski claimed to russian forces are attacking

innocent victims on purpose. but that won't stop some ukrainian staying until the bitter end. earlier i spoke to d. w. near conley and kiera, and i asked him if there's any explanation for why russia would target an apartment building, brushing us, i would have you believe that this was a strike on western weapons. it had been sent to ukraine, and that is the explanation here, time and time again. every time this kind of mass killing of civilians happens, we saw it with the attack on the mall and central ukraine just some weeks ago. and it doesn't seem to add up the question about the kind of intention, whether this was intentionally about trying to panic and quote, caused chaos among civilians. or whether this is just because russia is running out of more precision, a capable weapons. i think that's the question for later question. the near prosecutes looking into potential war crimes. we'll look into, but i think the reality for civilians on the ground there is however far away they

are from military target such as military targets. if you're anywhere near that front line, you are in intense danger and basic, the only way of guaranteeing of safety is getting as far away as possible. now, while they still can now andree year mark cur, the chief of staff of ukraine's president, he describes the strike on the apartment block as another terrorist attack. he's calling for russia to be officially recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism. what with that achievement? this is a u. s. definition, a basically a kind of herb, very kind of exclusive clump of countries that are under the kind of highest level of us sanctions is comes like north korea, syria, iran. and that would basically make most business transactions with these countries for us businesses, but also other countries. businesses who then want to work with the u. s. basically impossible, and the limits on the kind of number, the can numbers, the kind of the volume of business possible are very, very low, lots of permit permit and special dispensations necessary. and i think the kind of

the, the rationale behind a hearing ukraine is they are very wide, that as energy prices rise as the current cost of living crisis in europe and north america develops that there's gonna be an appetite to try and draw back on some of these sanctions imposed for this war on russia, and that there will be some kind of deal done at ukraine's expense to try and bring down energy prices. so i putting russia on a list like that, that is then very difficult for any near future u. s. ministration or different policy makers to then dal back on and that would really keep the pressure on russia in the long term and really make it difficult for international business to engage with russia. ok, the ukranian government has urged civilians in the southern casts on region to evacuate. now that areas currently occupied by russian troops, ukraine says, is preparing a counter offensive there. but more can you tell us about this neck we've really seen ukraine in some parts. actually. now going to counter offensive in the last few days, particularly the arrival of western weapons. those american high mas,

rocket launchers have enabled ukraine to hit russian targets far away from the frontline, 6078 kilometers away from that positions there. for now, they've been hitting russian weapons depose, and the logistics. so basically seemingly preparation to go to counter attack. i think macy all through this campaign, ukraine has been outgunned by russia. so now the i had to kind of plan is to try and basically stove rushes, troops of weapons to basically even out the chances. and while rushers preoccupied in the east with lucon street and trying to kind of push forward there to then go to count offensive in the south and to really regain territory while the russians are trying to basically regroup off to basically weeks of very intense fighting that cost them lots of manpower and lots of whitman. nick, thank you very much. d, w. nick connelly in here. take a look at some other stories making headlines around the world today. thousands of firefighters have been battling wildfires in portugal amid a worsening heat wave. dozens of aircraft have been supporting ground crews with

help, also coming from neighboring spain. nearly all of portugal was classified last month as being in either extreme or severe drought. a wildfire in yosemite national park in california has more than doubled in size and is threatening the largest growth of giant sequoia tree firefighters have been working in difficult terrain to contain the blaze. residence and campers have been evacuated from the affected areas of the sprawling park. macau, the world's biggest gambling hub, has shut all its casinos for at least a week. as the chinese autonomous regions struggles to contain his worst ever corona virus outbreak, residents have been ordered to stay at home, thousands or in horn t as marco follows, china's 0 covered policy. sri lunches president to go to buy a roger poxy says he will officially step down on wednesday as,

according to an announcement from the prime minister's office. both president and prime minister have said they will step down over violent turmoil sparked by a deepening economic crisis. but protesters and colombo are skeptical they say they will carry on occupying the homes of the president and prime minister until the 2 men formerly resign picking up rubbish in the garden of the presidential palace into deal bundari had taken part in protest for more than 90 days he was injured so severely during one of them that he's been in a wheelchair ever since. when i got that again, maybe i did this for my country. what happened to me is irrelevant. we protest it was so long until we finally achieved our goal. and this makes me really happy. what of it? did they happy? i'll do it again. on saturday,

tens of thousands of people filled the streets of sure, lank is capital colombo. they stormed government buildings and the president's palace. bowing to public pressure. most prime minister week remy singer and president go to buy a raj, a boxer announced their resignations like many others in the new bon. dora sees the president as the main culprit for this crisis. he owned a small fabric factory but was forced to close its doors when or to stop coming in . that left his family of 6 without the income they relied on. i them again, nathan, i meant i'm still living on my savings. i also donated to the protests, but because of the accident, i still had to pay for an operation very, which also costs me a lot of money and we were leading. the worries, fears and anger of the previous months are forgotten, at least for now. the presidential palace is usually sealed off and out of bounds for ordinary people. now it's become a tourist hotspot. thousands come here to see how go to buy

a roger pox. i lived in luxury in his gym. oh, by the pool. is really unbelievable. read and been that they're not 2nd written will come to us monday that finally come. and that is what we want that via vetting ha, more than 90 days for this day. so i think this is a very excited isn't all of us. he london, we are very happy and very we are very proud. but even with the president and prime minister gone, the countries problems remain sri lanka is more than 50000000000 euros in debt. many people have lost their jobs and barely have the money to feed themselves and their families. while i was didn't thought we now expect the country to be ruined by capable people, may we know that we have many talented young politicians here. they must now be given a chance and give hope back to the people of shall anchor with them. i thought he did. i love i didn't gamble of them in and deal hopes that he'll be able to reopen

his factory when the crisis is passed. but that's not lodge, he to be any time soon. japan's prime minister for mucus sheeta has met with us secretary of state antony blinking, blinking arrived in tokyo for a previously unscheduled stop. he delivered condolences over the death of japan's influential former leadership. so abi, who was assassinated on friday? the meeting came a day after she does governing coalition secured a solid majority and elections for parliament's upper house. earlier i spoke with journalists, sonya blanca in tokyo. i asked her if abe's killing might have been influenced. might have influence the outcome of japan's election. i'd say to a certain degree, i mean we were expecting the team to win quite comfortably anyway. and that has happened. and they can fact had their best results in 2013 and they did sway

a lot of the undecided motors turn. i was also relatively good for japan with a little over 50 percent. so i think the, the assassination might have some sort of impact, but also maybe not, not huge. shinji hobbies shooting death was a huge shock. hor, japan. how have people there reacted to the killing. the overwhelming census is really still that people are extremely shocked. like how this could have happened in their peaceful country. and the city of nora, where the incident happened, has introduced a trauma, hold line for people to call. this is really something that people are not equipped to deal with. just the fact that all the people didn't actually run away when it happened also shows that people just, i'm not used to, to this type of incident tom and then there are 2 other feelings. one is that people are a bit of relief. so as strange as this may sound,

but as it seems to have been a kind of personal issue and not an issue related to, to obvious philosophy. because the, the perpetrator had some personal problem with effect that his mother gave donations to. and that's why he targeted other at the same time, people are worried that other people like him my to marginalized and might be plotting similar things. well, the u. s. victoria state antony blinkin. he made an unscheduled visit to japan following albert. his death. tell us more about the yes he returned from the g 20 summit in bali and we went to talk you to express that japan and the u. s. are not only l o as allies, but also friends. so that's what he said when he visit by minister. and he really went there to, to extend the sympathies also from our president biden. and also to show that japan

and us are really strong in their relationship. and he also said that actually it did a lot to improve that relationship learning. sonya, thank you very much. that was journalist sonya blanca in tokyo. you're watching d. w. news live from berlin coming up next, got a documentary for you. is time on toxic waste from a swedish mining company, and how it ended up poisoning a small community in chile. of course you get all the information you want any time on our website, d, w dot com. i'm terry martin. thanks for watching. a man with the memories of a woman ah, ali from syria is born in a female body. forced into marriage, raped.