ah ah ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin, a russian, puerto jails, us basketball star, brittany griner for 9 years on drug charges. the american athlete is convicted of smuggling cannabis oil into russia. u. s. president joe biden is calling on moscow

to release her immediately. put a diplomatic deal, see her walk free. also coming up on the show concern over russia's treatment of ukrainian prisoners of war. keeps as moscow is behaving illegally with prisoners being sentenced to death on curious grounds. we meet the parents of one man being held by russia who nancy pelosi. ah hello, i'm claire richardson. thanks so much for joining us. a russian court has found us basketball player, brittany griner, guilty of drugs, possession and smuggling. she has been sentenced to 9 years in jail. the sports star was arrested for carrying a vague pen and cartridges in her luggage, which contained marijuana, oil. russian authorities said the charges against her were fully proven. the united states says she's been wrongfully detained with president biden calling on russia

to release her immediately. brittany griner entered the cramped court room and defended cell, hoping the sentencing judge would be lenient that the judge would consider that greiner admitted her mistake, but had accidentally packed cannabis oil prescribed by her doctor and legal in the us. i never meant to hurt anybody. to put in jeopardy the rest of the population, i never missed break. any volunteer made a mistake. and i hope that you're ruined in my life. griner was stopped in mid february after putting her bag through screening and moscow. airport customs officials searched her bags and she was eventually detained . she was on her way to join the russian club. she played for after the w n. b. a season in the united states. griner is considered one of the top basketball talents

in the world for $206.00 centimeter stature. 6.9 inches helps her dominate pro basketball, and she helps when to olympic gold metals for the u. s. in court, she held up a picture of her team in russia after several teammates had served as character witnesses for her. but she knows russia and the us are now on opposite sides of a global conflict. i know everybody, he's talking about political pond in politics, but i hope that that is far from this courtroom. and a quick decision the court showed it was unmoved by grinders call for leniency. she was sentenced to 9 years, one less than the 10 year maximum. was the disappointment. you know, one way it so brittany, i think it was tuesday and i saw talk to see on thursday and she said see on doomsday. so looks like she was right. as with the last 6 months grinders,

immediate future is behind bars in russia, her longer term future may well rest in the hands of diplomats for 2 countries, barely speaking to each other. let's get the view from washington from d. w correspondent, stuff, and simon's shop. and do we have any official reaction from washington? besides what we heard the report, the president reacting saying this is an unacceptable verdict. and the whole detention off of brittany grown is unacceptable and unlawful in the eyes of the americans. it is mister blinking secretary of state who obviously condemned the verdict also as well as the spokes person director for communications on social national security council. mr. kirby. so yes, the administration he reacts and condemns the verdict again for the united states. miss griner is also mr. whelan, the 2nd american in custody a, by, in moscow, by the russians. those 2 are unlawfully detained. that's the u. s. position.

indeed, there had already been high level diplomatic efforts discussing a possible prisoner exchange. how likely does that seem ah, i'm not an oracle. i don't have a glass ball, but it seems that they are at least talking to each other. russians and americans. that's a good 1st step, tiny step though. there was an offer by the united states to exchange and the tourist arms dealer russian. i'm still having to booth a for miss griner and paul whelan, but the, the russians didn't react, let's say on a level the united states would have expected this, the russians to do if they would have taken this serious. so our seriously, so that the united states regards this at least the intelligence community as was the white of the administration as far as they come forward. regard regards,

the russian reaction to the off of the united states, right, which is still standing by the way as not serious. and this is where we are state secretary of state blink, and had a chance to talk to his counterpart in a while visiting the asian summit. but mr. love and mr. blinking did not communicate what so ever just happened date of birth. he's mentioned convicted on much more serious grounds in the united states and arm traffic i dubbed the merchant of debt. if i go ahead, would that be an even swapped? this is cern. depends on how you look at it. is it even as you said, victor boats notorious a merchant of death, was this nickname because he was in the eighty's predominant in the ninety's. still the person for arms dealing, illegal arm, sealing big, big ticket arms ceiling to africa, middle east asia, wherever. whoever wanted arms needed arms of any kind and sword and form victor

boot was there. and now is this $2.00 to $1.00? is that a legitimate is this on even is, is on par. um, no, and yes, of course the united states wants to get brittany griner and poll real and out of russia because there is no other as you can see with this wording. there is no other analysis on the us side. judging this as just being a pawn of politics, you know mister will and miss griner being pawn in the political diplomatic game right now. so i don't have the right answers to this. if this even happened, simon's in washington. thank you. yes, ukraine's foreign ministry says russia is treating ukrainian prisoners of war illegally and using them for political purposes. that is strictly forbidden. under the geneva conventions, russia and proxy authorities and eastern ukraine have charged dozens of soldiers with crimes. 3 foreign born ukrainians older have been sentenced to death on

allegedly fabricated charges. tito b as beretta shook. i'm that the parents of one man being held by the russians a fear he could suffer a similar fate. each morning if gania would kevin take some time for herself and quite to look at her son. she hasn't heard from maxine since russian forces captured him 2 months ago. she scared that might be torturing him or that he might be dead. you know, cylindrical i sit in the kitchen and just cry while my husband is still sleeping. when he gets up, i wash my face, awesome nights and try to be strong for the day and not to cry anymore. only in the early mornings. i allow myself to cry. what's it difference? does windows yeah, the couple invited us to their home because they want the world to know about their son. his parents say, maxine volunteered to join the army, even though he is a pacifist. he had worked as

a journalist and activist campaigning for refugees and human rights. but when russia invaded, he decided to take more direct action to wish you use go. so she directed me to, he told me, i'm joining the army because i have to defend the values i've been fighting for my whole life. yes, this is bruce. they only realized he had been captured when a video of maxine being interrogated was shown on russian state media with to boucher. it was horrible. the 1st thing i felt was just horror. i saw my early childhood listen through them. i thought that can't be true crow kremlin telegram tennis quickly called maxime and nazi a nationalist. they even said he was a british spy because he had worked as a local producer for the b, b. c. in 2003. they dishes in the blue cross blue to my biggest concern is that they might not recognize him as a prisoner of war like they have with others

e and that they would fabricate a criminal case against him. so using all those lies in a twisted evidence latisha with some of a good, a storage it was use when you free our domestic intelligence office called home that russia is holding more than 7000 ukrainian so just prisoner. but they won't talk about any of it on camera, because negotiations for prisoners swaps on top secret. a lawyer representing the families of more than 50 captured soldiers has agreed to talk with us. let us laugh, we could not see it works closely with domestic intelligence to try to get prisoners back. he expects that russia will fire more and more criminal cases against ukrainian prisoners of war. i think this is so this is done mostly for their political purposes. when you create search and you know, important to person, great launch, you know,

you can use it to in their political, you know, treat but yes. again. yeah. and or like sunday i don't want things to get that far . they fire the nerd into peer to the european court of human rights. they say they will fight with everything they have until maxine is friendly. let's turn our attention now to some of the other stories making headlines around the worlds un secretary general, antonio guitar hash has urged governments to introduce special taxes on the profits of oil and gas companies to be made is common, come after some of the world's biggest energy firms posted a record quarterly profits driven by searching energy prices, which her, she said it was a moral for companies to profit from the crisis. hundreds of people have protested in bay route on the 2nd anniversary of the explosion of grain silos that killed over 200 people. they are demanding an international prob,

after investigations into the incident stalls. during their protests, 2 more silos collapse. if fire had burned through the structures for several weeks and emergency services are still fighting a large fire in berlin's green involved forest, the blaze broke out at a police munitions depot. in the early hours of thursday morning. more than 140 emergency personnel have been dispatched to tackle the fire authority said that residential areas are not in danger. well, china has launched a live fire military drills around high want as tensions right after the visit of us. how speaker nancy pelosi, the chinese military has fired ballistic missiles into the waters off taiwan. the government in ty pay says it's scramble jets to warn off chinese aircraft that entered its air defense zone. and a number of taiwanese ministry websites have come under cyber attack. when nancy pelosi left high, one pledging washington's iron clad commitment to defending democracy,

the people's liberation army relief these images of china, launching its biggest show forth against taiwan in decades. navy and air force drills indicated in blue, have encircled the self governing island that china claims as its own. the drills included what beijing cold precision missiles strikes in the taiwan strait. this new escalation comes as beijing hits back for us house baker, nancy pelosi visit to ty pay. pelosi reaffirmed us commitment to defending ty, one's democracy. as the islands government scramble jets to ward of chinese aircraft encroaching on the air space was in full like our government is even more resolute to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our nation. in light of the current situation, our government will not only actively strengthen its self defense capabilities,

but will also maintain close ties with like minded countries like united states. the issue has dominated a meeting of the association of south east asian nations in cambodia, capital non pen with china and the united states joining the summit. in his opening remarks, china's foreign minister emphasized the political and security ties between china and us young countries, where we have guarded the pace facing the turbulence of the national security. the 2 sides have strengthened to strategic communication, jointly tackled the challenges, various spillover effects and jointly maintained the uneasily achieved stability in the region. c on is positioning itself as a negotiator. it's cold for all 5 today, escalates warning, a miscalculation could lead to open conflict. you're watching

d. w news coming up next in detail. the unions, asia tree long as people stick with their demands for change, despite intimidation from the government. and why this pakistani minister is calling her country the ground is 0 of climate change that she's update at this hour. i'm clear. richardson in for a lynn for me and the team. thank you so much for watching with ah, linda, i would, people have to say matters to us.