it's tracy with hearing their dreams. to me this week on d. w. ah, [000:00:00;00] ah, this is dw news live from berlin, ukraine's president accuses russia of planning to blow up a vital hydro electric dam full of the mirrors. lensky ones, hundreds of thousands are in danger. flooding in the occupied house on region. also coming up u. s. lawmakers order donald trump,

to give evidence about the january stick storming of the u. s. capital. the former president is required to appear next month to testify on his involvement in the violent riot. and italy gets its 1st female prime minister and 1st fall right leader since world war 2. but georgia maloney name's a coalition cabinet, including more moderate ministers. ah, i am told me a logic. well, welcome to the program. the battle for ukraine is now centering around a massive dam on ukraine's. denise river cube has warned russia it will hit back harder if russia blows it up. president villa, the mirrors, lensky accuses rush of planning to destroy the dam and send flood waters rushing towards hundreds of thousands of people. water from the dam is also vital for

cooling. europe's largest nuclear power plant in the upper regia mosque was telling its citizens that if the hydro electric plant is destroyed, ukraine will be at fault. the massive kafka hydro electric power plant in southern ukraine with its huge water reservoir, may soon become a weapon of war with devastating consequences. according to the ukrainian president, russian troops had planted mines in the dam. he says they are planning a false flag operation to trigger an enormous flood. jay dmc, and that will be this is one of our largest energy facilities super in the dam. connected to this hydro electric plant holds 18000000 cubic meters of water is used . you can only use a fresh m terrace blowed up more than 80 settlements, including hassan will be in the zone hit by the flash flooding. boom. blue, hundreds of thousands of people would be affected. his food in these issue to day

one was thursday up the expanse of water north of the power plant has been nicknamed the sea. over 240 kilometers of the disney per river are held back by this dam. last march, russian forces took over this site during their invasion. now, 7 months later, the russians are maintaining a defensive position in the region. experts say that the russian military may think that breaching the damn, could cover their retreat from the right bank of the disney per river, and prevent or delay ukrainian advances toward scarce on within russia. news sources are saying that it is not them, but ukraine that is planning to blow up the damn. we are now joined by rahman gunter ankle from d w's, russia and eastern europe service. ellerman. can you give us an idea of what it would mean if this down would be blown up? well,

2 things would happen 1st and we could have very many civilian casualties. probably tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of ukrainians could be affected. it gives you populated area and is flood, we don't know how high maybe one, maybe 2 meters high now will more than 80 and places like smaller villages, smaller towns and the c d o persona. so, so we haven't seen anything like this in ukraine or in the former soviet union, so it will be a huge catastrophe. of course, there will be also consequences for the energy supply because there is a power. this is a power plant, and there could be consequences for the atomic power plant. so that the stream and which is also important for russia, there could be consequences for that. can now, which is providing water from the priority but to the korean peninsula. and it's by russia, in 2014. so russia actually has no interest in blowing up. and militarily,

this is the 2nd aspect, this would slow down both sides, so it will make the cranium offensive slower. and it will make more difficult for russians to retreat if they want. right. we say both sides accusing each other of having plans to blow up this dam. is it really just a matter of time before it actually happens? no, i don't think it's per destined to happen. my assumption is that russia has actually mind that the dam, but for a slightly different purpose that we might think. i think the russian purpose is to stop your crying from shelling damn with rockets, missiles because there are very few bridges over the river. it is very wide, and russia needs those bridges to retreat or to advance. so ukraine has been

showing the biggest on 20 of get bridge in the city of san itself. but russia could signal if you wish, if you show this this down or you could damage it and then we can no longer use it . so we put some explosives here, so you see what would happen if you continue. i think this is the actual reason behind it, right? i was in russia, actually, a part of its plan has been to carry out attacks on ukraine's energy infrastructure recently. what does that tell you about about their strategy? well, they're right, the actual new brand new infrastructure as we speak several cities, again, included possibly the capital key for the key of region service. it is in the south, like and some others. so it's a sign weakness, it's a sign up with some weakness, rush, weakness on the metal front. and rushes, drawing of course to compensate for those losses of territory had in september in the north, by the city of hockey,

the 2nd largest city of ukraine. and it is time to gain time to, to wait until that mobilization president bush, in order to will show effect on the bus from an current gun to ranko. thank you for speaking to us. let's take a look now at some other developments in the wall line, britain, france and germany a calling for the united nations to investigate whether russia has used iranian made drones to attack ukraine. they say the use of such weapons would breach a un security council resolution u. s. secretary of state and blank and says, washington would perceive any opportunity to engage in diplomacy with russia if it sees an opening. but he adds that he has seen no evidence that moscow is interested in ending the war in ukraine. dw correspondence killian via spoke to latvian foreign minister at guys rink of its for more analysis on the kind security

situation in europe. with me is the law in foreign minister, mr. at guzman college, mr. in coverage. russia has mobilized hundreds of thousands of civilians to plug the whole holes in its combat. army research reports indicate that russia has lost almost 50 percent of its original invasion force. what does this mean for the security in the baltics of this point? we do not see any direct military threat more met our president gunnery had before the 21st of february, when nauseous thought are due to aggression against your crime. what is, of course, charlan cheese this new russian bought ocean military group that is being formed, of course, is being formed against your crime, but we are closely monitoring any most with at this point. now there is no any immediate direct relative to the baltic, swore to fall under, turn me under my door to your country. latvia with the other baltic states is among one of the biggest military donors to ukraine. your country gives much more

military aid than germany's say. per capita, do you think that countries like germany are not pulling their weight both, but they're always been saying and they're going to be that here is that to indeed we must help your grand the bottom line is give your grain. what it asks for. i know that the german government, other european governments are sending weapons military agreement. the problem is that this is the war. what should germany do better? well, i sing that. so we have been talking about the need to send more air defense recruitment . the 3 need to send more weapons to your grain, but i do believe that that is a more general problem for all of us. we are sending a lot of equipment. yes, latria at this point is number one, when it comes to percentage of g d p rehab center, great man or so 3000000 euros or a small country. that's

a very big deal. but at the same time we need military industry to step up. it's effort because we needed blandishments and ukrainians need more like what would you say to people? it's that we think that it's better not to push vladimir putin into a corner for fear of nuclear escalation. well 1st of all, nobody's pushing, let me put them in the corner, but the let me put in him. so he started this war, he started that back in 2014, actually not don't a 22 ukrainians. upgrading undefeated if we given into nuclear blackman, then it will continue and i sing that so it is absolutely critical to help ukrainians. any ready, cat, that's our best insurance policy against any kind of fuser, no greater weapons. can there be an end to this war without an ent of labor putin?

i sing debt to the sword can and only or ukrainians, or you or is or result 14. i don't care. mr. encourage. thank you so much for the interview to the us. now we're lawmakers of order donald trump, to give evidence at the inquiry into the january 6th attack on the capital. a congressional committee is told trump to hand over documents and testify under oath next month. it says there's evidence that the former president personally orchestrated the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election hours earlier. trump's chief strategist, steve bannon was sentenced to 4 months in jail for refusing to cooperate with the investigative committee. dw correspondent colina troy has more from washington dc. the timing is quite interesting. the special committee investigating the dairy 6

attack on the capital is running out of time in less than 3 weeks. the midterm elections will take place here in the united states and the outcome of these elections will probably change the majority in the house of representatives. meaning that the republicans might then be in power and they are of course, are going to dismiss the select committee, investigating the general 6 attack on the capitol because many of them say this is a political hand of donald trump. so the committee is trying to get things done here as fast and as soon as possible and for them it's a race against the time. georgia maloney has become italy's 1st female prime minister. and it's for as far i've leader, since the 2nd world war, maloney's brothers of at lee party won last month's election but needed support from other parties to form a coalition government. she's named a cabinet, including moderate figures in italy's presidential palace, the 1st woman to leave the country takes the stage her far right

coalition is now set to govern. after receiving the green light from the president who were one, john, i thought the law delegates running on board that they got their delegation composed by the leaders of all the political forces of the center. right. coalition rest met with president math at a law. the master and agreed with them about the need to give this nation and new government and the shortest possible time. all there are no. oh, let me know to them, but we'll see. billable kick is under many urgent issues. we face both nationally and internationally. when i li, i live alone, there are lots generally like much of europe. italy is struggling with the cost of living crisis, exacerbated by record inflation. soaring energy costs and rising interest rates. it's unclear whether maloney's coalition of far right firebrands will be able to steer the country back on track cracks between them have already begun to appear

even before they've taken office while maloney is ardently pro ukraine, her coalition partner mateo. so vini is a long time admirer of the russian president with ben bertram and shock waves ripples through italian media. when an audio recording emerged from maloney's other coalition partner and former prime minister, silvio berlusconi in it, he said he had reconnected with his old friend vladimir putin and that the 2 had sent each other birthday gifts and warm words that triggered an ultimatum from maloney. it was either support ukraine or don't join her government. there is some fear, the country's entering, choppy waters, outgoing prime minister. marya draggy says the relative strength of italy's economy should give the new government a good place to start from. if you i, i mean i would a make and i had never made even in the past too much out of these southern

style. jose, how when things go. if drug is not there, these things are usually overblown. maloney will be sworn in on saturday, paving the way for a new era of italian politics in uncertain times. coming up next why most apps on your smartphone is, is designed to be addictive. that's in our tech magazine shift. i'm told me a logical for myself and the team. thanks for joining us. i'll be back at the top of the art with more news. nico is in germany to learn german. hello pinnacle. why not learn with him online, on your mobile and free chest c w e learning course nikos vague