please enjoy our services. ah, be our guest at frankfurt. airport city managed by from bought. ah ah, ah ah, this is d. w. news live from berlin, the president of sri lanka, please. the country hours before he is due to step town. go to buy a bunch of pops. as sudden departure comes after wide spread protest over his handling of the economic crisis. also coming up ukraine's forces strike back in

southern regions occupied by russia, the ukrainian military. it says that it hit a russian ammunition depot, killing dozens of soldiers. ah, i'm sarah kelly. welcome to the program she longest president. gotcha. by a roger pox and his wife have fled the country on a military jet and flown to the nearby maldives it is believed that he left the country before his resignation to avoid losing his immunity and possibly being arrested. it's not known if roger pock so will stay on the island nation, but his decision to leave has angered protestors. his departure come, several days after crowd stormed and occupied his residence, they blame him and his administration forced. we long as worst economic crisis in decades with daily power cuts and shortages of basics like fuel, food,

and medicine. he w, corresponded near chowdhury, is in the sri lankan capital colombo, madeira. what could this move mean for roger pox a and for the country? who else i can write, and i'll tell you what it means that a thief will. i'm right now standing in front of present, take a period, the official up workplace of the president. for the people, at least it means vicky people. nice to me, happy belie. fulton, be ok to happy that. what about what that finally decided to step down from the fulton defendant, but also didn't want him back? they don't want him to be had to count him for all the time. the corruption, i admit, wanted to find that out mid management to find that are on him, but i to bucks as well. it definitely needs that this family which joined the country for decades. it would be almost impossible for them to come to power in this country. again, good about our books i had fled to the mall div as you reported. the next step of course would be to elect a new president. busy and as i mentioned,

i mean that would really be a big change for the country given that the roger pox a family has led the country for decades. where does the country go from here? many era on the big dos kayla just said is electing a new president according to the true london constitution. when the president stepped down the prime minister, who had done to become a thing right now becomes the acting president. now the public mode is very much, very much against the drama. think i'm says the parliament is slated to meet next week to elect a new president. but bill them at that point it seems like under the from i think i'll really be the acting president. talk with us a little bit more about the economic situation right now because i mean the, the dire conditions is really what i heard all of this in the country. tell us more . well, well, the economy try for the 1st continues and one very important thing to note is that

the economic stability will not come to the bank, but it does while we're doing an inflation which are already very high, are connected to go even higher in the coming few months, the road ahead is going to be very difficult. why do need a government, they do need a keep the functioning government that it's about it has to do with the i am that. 6 the international want keeping package or humanity coming from any of the bungee . the person at the organization getting the need really need a government really need a piece of liter before they can actually give that kind of an age. apart from that bid, the country does need a very strict line of action. they do need that be structuring. they do need to bring down the nation and very importantly, suggesting they do need a very transparent model. oh sure. read all the aid which are going to come in, it's going to be utilized because the public faith in the administration has gone down a lot. so that can be a big deal with indeed to avoid any further corruption or mismanagement. that will be very important for the country to w correspondent,

nearer chowdhury. joining us from colombo, thank you so much. in ukraine, kia has been striking back in the southern care. so region now occupied by russia. ukraine says that its forces destroyed a russian, ammunition depot and killed over 50 soldiers. russian st media gave a different account claiming that at least 7 people were killed. ukraine is handling it as a victory and an attempt to drive back russian forces. the ukrainian government says, this is the moment it's rocket hit, a russian military depot in nova cock of ukraine. south russian, back to officials say us supplied weapons were involved in the strikes. ukraine. president says his forces are aiming to reclaim territory. local bonds, occupiers have already felt very well what modern artillery is and they will not have a safe rear anywhere on our land which they occupied. russian

forces now occupied lodge sways of ukraine's east. in the city of sylvester don, it's, they patrol landscape turned to rubble after their assaults. similar scenes across the river in little chance where buildings lie in ruins. ukraine's forces retreated in the face of relentless attack. now russian troops handout aid to residents. they claim to have liberated ukraine flag still flies in back moves. one of the few remaining cities under keith control in the region of donnette sk as the front line moves closer. residents are preparing for a future which resembles the past. you're going to sort of get i remember the war of 941. i was little back then. now here it's also hor, official say a 3rd of the population has already fled and more

a following them. but time is running short. drive is say, they say it's a perilous journey. as bombings intensify across the region. as crossover to d w as nick connelly who has the view from keith, nick, ukrainian forces hitting back harder against the russian backed troops in the south . as we have heard. is this the counter offensive? the key has been telling people they're preparing for i think it's a bit early for that. i think the preparation to the counter offensive. it seems like ukraine stretching all this to try and stove the russian forces of ammunition of supplies of logistics was all to his campaign. we've heard from ukraine's leaders talking about russian forces having somewhere between $7.00 to $10.00 times more artillery or to re pieces. but also artillery shells munitions at their disposal, which basically allowed russia to busy steam roll the ukrainian troops without any particular and sophisticated stretches to cover them with endless artillery attacks

until the ukrainian forces, as if seen time and time again, especially the east of them being forced to pull back to try and avoid casualties. so basically, the hope here now in ukraine is that west to weapons, especially american rocket launch this high mo, systems that allow ukraine to hit target 6070 centers, 80 kilometers, depending on the type of shall use away from where they are from a safe distance than our really allowing them to really make it difficult for russia. we've seen apparently now russia moving some of the logistics back far, far away from where they're fighting, which is going to make their life a whole lot more difficult and would give you cranium troops, a much better chance of making progress and of it having a chance to roll back those russian forces. and as the fighting on the ground continues on let to mention that the united nations has released new numbers on the human toll of this war. and i just like to walk through a few of them. they say that more than 5000000 people have been displaced. at least 5000 civilians killed, in fact, same that that number is likely much higher. bernoulli half

a year into this war neck. how are people in ukraine coping? stephanie, a very mixed picture there in the east, as you saw in that report, life is grim most people there have been without power, without manes, walter for weeks now, some places mobile phone connections are really suffering and people are getting out in large numbers here and key of you can sometimes go a day without really noticing that you're in a was own when their rates are ins and on when you see people in cafes going about their daily jobs. but this is a country that is obviously suffering. it is holding up extraordinarily well in terms the infrastructure in about an hour, in terms of restoring stuff off to attacks. but this is the country that has seen millions of people who've left and millions. it's expected who might want to come back, but are actually unable to come back was their jobs have disappeared, and there are people who have moved within the country. most refugees, how internally displaced. they've gone to the east to the western regions of this country. now trying to work out where to go, what to do,

their savings now as these months drawn is slowly being exhausted. and so this is definitely a country that is at no, at it under a lot of pressure. and jeff straining to kind of deal with this. and so, so you're increasing frustrated that even promises of western financial support rather than just weapons deliveries all coming through a lot more slowly than promised. and i think we're going to see a real crunch point in the next couple of months as you know, the government. he tries to make sure that pensions and wages keep getting paid. nick connelly. m t f. thank you so much. his a look at some other stories making his social media platform. twitter is suing billionaire iran mosque in an effort to force him to buy the company mosque is attempting to back out of an agreement to acquire twitter for $44000000000.00 in its lawsuit. twitter accused mosque of ruining the company's stock value and disrupting operations. a french court has jailed a former senior

a want an official for 20 years after finding him guilty of complicity, genocide, low wrong. ok, buttah is the highest ranking we're wanting to face trial in france. over the 1994 massacres, the 78 year old was found to have taken part in planning mass killings. the u. s. has says that it has killed the leader of the syrian branch of the so called lomax state in h. rone strike, mar, i'll, i'll go, was hit near gin date in direst in northwestern syria. while riding a motorcycle, the pentagon says that a senior i s official seriously injured. the funeral, a former japanese prime minister sions, obey, has taken place in tokyo. thousands of mourners gathered outside of the temple where the private service was held up. it was assassinated on friday, while campaigning in the city of norah, just days before

a parliamentary election. us president joe biden is on his way to the middle east for his 1st visit since taking office. his itinerary includes saudi arabia, a country that he once described as a pariah due to its human rights record. but where he now hopes to secure increased oil production to ease global prices. 5 is 1st off in the region, is israel, a country in political turmoil after the collapse of its coalition government? israel interim prime minister is expected to press biden, to put pressure on its regional rival. iran biden is also due to meet with palestinian leaders in the west bank some west jerusalem streets are fully decked out ahead of president joe biden's visit to israel in the occupied territories. many here are looking forward to his arrival. i'm sure is it in binary, can make some kind of difference. what kind i can say right now,

this is a problematic time. it's not the best opportunity to try any kind of change, but could bumps in that every time an american president comes to jerusalem, it's a great honor for me. but as a jerusalem, i should also a great hustle because the sushi will be closed and we won't be able to leave home noises. i think it's very courageous of him to come ashore. days after the prime minister is changed to come. i mean, it shows how special the relationship is. it. no one knew had him yet. year lockheed who is heading the caretaker, israeli government will greet the u. s. president biden often refers to his longstanding friendship with israel. his 1st visit dates back almost 50 years on the agenda. iran and the nuclear talks a possible defense alliance with other arab states and steps towards a possible rapprochement with saudi arabia. that going to some kind of turning point with their on a day american elyse that would need to necessarily, you know, deal are reserved with this growing threat. they need to know that they have

american beck, that they have strong america. that is confident of itself. and that it will not let to, you know, create some kind of vacuum kia that will be inevitably filled with some other forces. the palestinian town of bethlehem in the occupied west bank is likely his last stop after a visit to east jerusalem on friday. graffiti of biden's predecessor trump still adorns the israeli barrier. partially surrounding the town. the u. s. and palestinian leaders hoped to reset diplomatic relations which reached a non dear under trump. some palestinians in the holy city hope for change. he sent it by then at the hottest wood and how quickly my message to biden, as please showed a true picture of what happens with the palestinian people. because distortion happens in the media and our true image is convey to the world and ada alliston. young people really need this because we are going backwards. a world is not paying attention to us and no one's looking towards us. what i doubt will go to not many

palestinians are pushing for biden to bring up the recent killing of u. s. palestinian journalist sharina avo auckland, which many blame on the israeli military after the president ends his visit here. he is expected to fly to saudi arabia this good harold bless frost. he ties between the former arch foes. you're watching dw news lie from berlin to stay with us. if you can, business is coming up next. i'm sorry, kelly in her land. thank you so much for watching. take care people in trucks injured when trying to free the city center. more and more refugees are being turned away at the border. families played on the tax in syria to these credit owners with demonstrated.