welcome, ah! on the last day of 2022 vladimir putin addressed russia pledging victory and the war against ukraine. just 2 days later, his defense ministry has admitted to the biggest loss of life since the launch of the brutal invasion by russian counts 63 soldiers are said to have dined. and the don, it's gretchen. but ukraine says that hundreds were killed in the strikes on mackie . fca 2023 was off to a bloody start on both sides. over the weekend, relentless russian attacks across ukraine killed at least 5 and wound a dozens. to night we ask what the rest of the year will bring in the conflict and how it could be brought to an end. i'm nicole foolish in berlin and this is the day . ah,

so since really may the ukrainians have had momentum on their side. they've been sessing the pace of the war they're afraid, and their right to be afraid. as a result of a strike by 4 missiles with a high explosive war head on a temporary deployment point, 163 russian service men were killed. and as we've seen that been 3 major russians allow, varies as they previously health. and then not take a single year from ukraine, they'll not take our independence will give them nothing. now it's very clear that was going to go on well in 2023. also coming up tens of thousands head to the vatican to paid their last respects to former pope benedict and 2013. he became the 1st pontiff to resign in hundreds of years. i or too old fashion with the right direction for the

catholic church. but it said he was the leader. so, but i would say that it was, this is he was not afraid to face the questions of today. he was very open in that regard. welcome to the show. russia has admitted suffering, the deadliest strike honest troops since fulton launched his full scale invasion of ukraine 10 months ago. the kremlin has confirmed that 63 of its soldiers were killed in a series of strikes on a temporary barracks in the eastern donnas region. the ukrainian defense forces have claimed responsibility for the new year's eve attack and say the true death toll is much higher, is footed shows the aftermath of the strike. russian media have sharply criticized the senior officers involved. here is part of the kremlin rare admission. 2 days after the attack is due to zillow, leave, the key of regime targeted,

a temporary deployment point of one of the units of the russian armed forces near the settlement of my kiva. and the de netscape people to republic with 6 rockets. if you estimate high monster multiple rocket launchers or russian air defense systems, shocked down to high mas rockets as a result of the strike, a full massage with a high explosive whoo, had a temporary deployment point. 63 russian service men were killed. all necessary assistance and support will be provided to the relatives and friends of the killed serviceman report samyele romani joins me now for more. he teaches politics and international relations at the university of oxford. he's also the author of the forthcoming book, futons war on ukraine. russia campaign for global counter revolution, mr. romani. good to see you again. welcome to the day how remarkable revere that russia would acknowledge a loss of this magnitude. well is very,

very remarkable because russia usually focuses casualty figures and numbers like heavy losses, which is something that energy prescott is often used as an expression a very infrequently updates the number of guests. and if you take an example of this, there was an attack on water. goober st. mary's in cam dash syria for 4 years ago. and the russians made only 5 people died actually 100 on the knology. this love of casualties is quite unprecedented. criticism has been mounting in russia against the military leadership. how has this attack in particular been received? welcome to this attack, has provoked the kind of ferocity of criticism against the military leadership that we saw after the withdrawals from car key workers on or the attack even know weeks ago and angles airbus. but there had been some critical voices than any others that were wrong. lee and ulysses and fred from africa, b criminal. that was one of the leading critics of the defense ministry as talking

about hundreds of casualties. so a lot more closely aligned with the ukranian estimates and others have drawn attention to some of the operational mishaps that made this happen. why did russia concentrate so many forces in, in one place, even though the area underneath is so depopulated? there's so many abandoned buildings that could have scattered them. why haven't they build underground bunkers around around fortifications? so why did they allow their cellular signal to be concentrated in one place? so they can, their identities can be given away, missouri. so there's, there are criticisms of what's happened here, but it's not as fierce as i've seen them over the course the past year. your, of course, following every, every movement on the battlefield very closely. where do you see the war headed? so right now, i think we're a bit of a pause or a bit of a g escalation in terms of actual acquisitions of new territory from other side. it doesn't mean that the intensity of the conflict is going to be jerry, right? in fact, what we've seen from the 1st couple of days and then new year and density ever been . but it's just very hard for either side to be able to achieve. a major

breakthrough you crave long term goal is to probably recapture is up patricia, which via bella topple, which is the key supply chain for the russians. and also try to push forward advancing crimean and the landscape. but i like the thousands of kilometers of advances that we've been seeing it over the course in september and october incremental, advancing only 2 kilometers a day, even according to ukrainian estimates. similarly, the russians are made offensively stuck back moot, and are focusing more on death. taking advantage of the difficult terrain by pretty fortifications and even google shopping in mind areas they home. so right now the russians are focusing on holding what they can and need to win back vote ukrainians . album for incremental gains is parisha and the hans, but is a much slower pace and much more traditional conflict. well, you probably ever seen it. now the big question we're trying to answer today is, will this war and in 2023? do you think there is a chance that this here will see an end to this bloody conflict?

well there's certainly a chance, but it's impossible to really say i think that if the ukrainians are to be capture all of the territory that they yeah took over the last any now i'm freakin deborah 24th. they will want to try to capture the rest of john bass and i'm in the united states has said that they will 100 percent commit to supporting ukraine's efforts. we got reserved roy up and that was last us is 24th grade. we have to make his own judgment called afterward. so much depends on now at the level of western support in the continuity of western support. if your brain wants to go and take a potential nuclear risk by attacking crimea. and deb and also much depends on russia's desire to ammunition, negotiate an escape out of this right now. it's easy. negotiating position is a d cranium after you recognize operation occurs on finance plants and crimea, as all part of russia. and aside from crimea, russia does need to control any of those regions in their entirety. so rushes with unrealistic and a very,

very dangerous negotiate the ukrainians. believe that this is their story, chance of victory, and that's why i can easily see this war silly. all ready for and some analysts are actually saying that all of what you just described is putting rush on course to become a failed state. when you say they're right. so it's hard to say whether fail state is what it is. i think even in terms of economic decline, we're noticing maybe 2.9 percent declining g d p. and in a traditional erosion of the countries, long term development prospects, especially outside of the national resorts, there for not witnessing the kind of greater than great depression type class in the russian economy that we saw during the 19 ninety's. the russian rubel is showing some weakness now for months of strength, but it's nowhere near the $998.00 rural crisis. there's been taught, obviously talk about russia actively defaulting, but nothing at the level of the debt prices that we saw in 1998 or nor is there at the kind of organized crime or the separatist who was in chechnya. i can find

a limited protest. i not you a civil war. so if russia was not quite, if it was david during on a field day during the 1990s, it certainly isn't jazz there yet. but there is obviously the risk of a greater rab, mental, internal, and rest. don't patiently travel dash ism, if the work needs to go badly. and we have to watch those respirators. really. the dynamics between the russian defense ministry, people actually go grandma and their most hawkish, critics like had your of any, any progression to the longer. yeah, interesting stuff, samuel romani, of the university of oxford. thank you so much. thank you. oh, now will we see an end to the pandemic in 2023. the world health organization is certainly hoping so as are billions around the globe. but officials warn, there is still a danger of deadly new variance emerging. let's look at where we stand after 3 years of the pandemic. since the 1st outbreak in china are nearly 6700000 people

have died. the corona virus claims more than 1500 lives every day, but numbers are much lower compared to last year. the w h o recommends vaccination and says acts as to effective vaccines is still unequal. globally, restrictions have been ease in many parts of the world as people learn to live with a virus and eric fy golding as a washington based epidemiologist. 3 years ago, he was one of the 1st to alert the public about the pandemic risk of co at 19 welcome back to the program doctor 5 building. now, just before the new year, one of germany's top biologists told a newspaper that he considers the pandemic to be over. we've heard similar remarks from the u. s. president, for example. do you agree? thanks for having. i absolutely do not agree because we're right now already not just talking about hypothetical. we're really staring at one of the worst variance to emerge and spreading worldwide to new york, originator very called x

d s d b 15. and it's, we should or this very, it deserves its own greek letter on it. because at the cross between several strains and wherever it becomes dominant hospitalizations or surge, including new york and much of new england state and already have the united states all have already just x p v 15, and it's, it's more your basis and it has better impact to the potential many ways, worst of both worlds and to say that the panoramic is over when we are already facing this highly evasive, highly effective straying that's already taking over us as well as one in 20, in the u. k. and surging rapidly. i think it's very way to, to, early to say and the over let came talking about what you call a new super very. and if it is very invasive, and we're seeing

a rise in hospitalizations, what measure is should be taken to keep infections at bay? well, i was remind everyone that you know, we always neither vaccine plus, obviously by the on boosters are good, but they're only good against the last existing version which it was designed for. and i will tell people that mass their agnostic about various ventilation, air disinfection, their diagnostic about bearing. so you should do multiple layers. so of course that backs any but also do the masking in crowded public places as well as ventilation in air disinfection by hepa filter by a fan, bentley, your air, your window, or build of course the box. if you can't open the window and you don't have to have a filter, there's many things you can do by filtering out the air of these virus to protect

you, your, yourself, your family, your workplace, and being faced from this buyer. remember, these measures are agnostic, ovarian, so he should rely on these things that are buried proof. now this is a very and that is already circulating with. there is of course, concern about the millions of infections that we are probably thing because we don't have official numbers in china. how much of a role does the countries abrupt reopening play when it comes to the risk of new variance emerging? yeah, china, you know, potentially they're having a burn through fresh, effectively. they're just allowing the virus to burn through as many people that are affecting. and i think remind people that china's holiday, the lunar year comes at the end of january. and the chinese academia chief else says the worst is yet to come. so when you infect or hassle china, 2 quarters of china, a 100000000 people, you're bound to get new variance. in many ways this x, b, b, 15 is also so fast,

it's already been detected in potentially in shanghai. so i think in many ways it's, it's only a matter of time whether it's a new, very from china or this new york variant x b, b 15, that takes over the world. and we're just asking for more, you know, a virus that doesn't kill you, mutates and tries, tries again. and we're only kisses giving the virus more opportunities to try try again. so stopping the infection, not just stopping hospitalization, should be our priority. now we're seeing countries like spain and france for example, that are imposing travel restrictions on people coming from china. morocco i thing has even blocked people coming from china from entering the country. do you think these kinds of measures make sense? we're faced with this kind of scenario. no doesn't make sense because the virus, sorry, world wide, you know, x d, v 15, which by the way, it's a, it's

a new york origin aided variance. it's already in multiple contents and to just only test china in many ways, it's very close minded and discriminatory. i think you should sure you should sequence people who test positive for this new x, p b 15, if, if anything, worldwide from any destination, especially united states, where it's the epicenter. so i think just testing china per se, is not the solution concern. just how much virus is just circulating right now. winter time, especially worldwide. we don't have too much time, but i do want to get your outlook for 2023 when it comes to the pandemic. here my outlook is there, i think by spring and the waves will die down again. but i think the question is, what do we do with this opportunity with a law once this winter search passes? i think, you know, there is no fee for what we make, so there is no exact future. but if our job is to simply stop hospitalizations,

we're going to have more of these waves. but if our job is to stop transmission and protect a people from getting the buyers in the 1st place in getting long, coven and being immunocompromised by coven, then i think our goal is to really, really think about all these ways of ventilation and disinfection that you know is independent or masking that can actually stop the virus, not just thought because position, epidemiologist, eric final day, always a pleasure speaking to you. thank you so much for your time. ah. after his death on december 31st, the former pope benedict is lying and states at the vatican. thousands of warriors have already made their way to saint peter's basilica to pay their final respects before benedict's burial. later this week, 1st 3 days. mourners will have the chance to say good bye to pope benedict,

italian prime minister, georgia maloney among the 1st to do so. the somber mood insights saint peter's basilica, disrupted only by the need to document as crowd sneaked around the vatican, waiting to enter the faithful. coming out. try to sum up the experience. aaron, umbrella, what's your own? it's a beautiful emotion to see the body and even a little transformed by suffering. bah. but even, and this is the pope, give us an example of faith. when i'm with sony, this, it's an indescribable emotion. i was in front of the pope's body. i didn't realize that he was right there. yeah, that it was really heavy. i think i'm in there on sunday, poke francis praised benedict during his new year's day prayer. junior more to the cma gone,

let us all join together with one hot and one soul in thanking god for the gift of this faithful servant of the gospel and of the church. and he is then addict made history in 2013, when he resigned. siting ill health, the 1st point of to do so since the middle ages. he led the church at the height of the clerical child abuse scandal, offering an apology to victims during a visit to australia in 2008. indeed, i am deeply sorry. was it pain and suffering? the victims, haven't you? in his bavarian birthplace, a message to from beyond the grave, a local priest read from benedict spirit shall testimony released posthumously. with this unwavering message, state faced him to stand firm and your face lot do not be confused.

hope benedict will be lead to rashed on thursday in a funeral. savish that is expected to draw thousands an historic occasion that will mark the end of an extraordinary era which sought to pope's living in the vatican. for more on the late pope martin got joins me in the city or is our religious affairs correspondent mountain. we just heard it there. and this is the end of the 2 pope's era. how much influence did benedict has after stepping down the he had a lot of influence. you had a lot of formal influencing formal influence formerly influence had a lot to do with the fact that he said, if not a trend, most certainly a precedent. so a lot of the conversations were hearing now coming out of the vatican about the potential resignation of pope frances would be simply unthinkable had been to the not resign. so, i mean, he quite clearly changed the shape of the discussion as to what is the role of

a pope. whereas we used to think of the pope as somebody that essentially was had certain spiritual attributes and dos were actually sort of exercise for a lifetime. i think that the shift that came with the resignation showed that the pope has much more of an administrative role that require certain, essentially not just want to see this, but it also requires certain amount of fitness. the moment in which benedick realize he was no longer cable, he abandoned it, happened in about a see an informal sight. it's very clear that it was extremely important for this po, for the sitting boat for friends, is to show himself mere benefit to so as to show actually unity wooden church, which was very much split for anything that in doing that he tried to point out to the fact, even if he'd never said it but or it, well, in some cases there were inklings of it that this was maybe no longer an official authority by chicken. but he still held moral and religious or spiritual authority

. so in that sense he changed really everything. yeah. francis his successor is much more liberal. a bit of a reformer. i went stead benedict san, in the way of his attempts of modernizing the catholic church. it's, it's difficult to say, i mean to a large degree friends benedict was seen as sort of the conservative figure head. and if you actually look at the way in which many political sort of political landscapes are actually split and probably the best example of this is the u. s. a . where you really had around that from era. very, very severe ideological for, for larry station between the left and the right. you could almost say that the lift had its pope and the right headed spoke. and this is something that you can also see in latin america. you can see in africa and you can see in asia in europe list so, but i think that it shows that as a matter of fact, there was still a very strong sense that these belong to very different political worlds. i

nonetheless believe that benedict was very clear that the church needed reform. and that when he stepped down, he understood that was, was goal for somebody that would be capable of pushing forth the reforms that actually counting what at that point was more or less a civil war within about you can. so i think that it goes both ways in a way you're somebody that certainly was a conservative and held on to conservative values. on the other hand, i think that he was also somebody that had enough foresight to understand that reform was important to know. the catholic church was wrought by several scandals during his policy. many of them involving benedict directly. where did he and what state did he leave the catholic church when he sat down, i think that the stayed at which the church finds itself the moment that by they steps down, it's essentially catastrophic. i mean, not only from a political institutional point of view and from a police from a, from a public relations point of view. not only there were sort of plenty of scandals

among them, just among them was the sex abuse scandal to which i'm sure we will return in this conversation. but you also had sort of a massive hemorrhage of believers. people that no longer said the church, not only like of religious how 30 no moral authority whatsoever. obviously, you know, if you have an organization that has for a better word, i mean, been in cape of solving what is a global crime wave of sexual abuse against children. it's impossible to actually take it seriously when the, when the church starts talking about morality. i think that, you know, benedict was a cable, a very competent scholar and a very competent thinker, not necessarily a very competent administrator. and as it has been pointed out, not somebody who relished a fight, which clearly was a central piece of church reform at that stage. i do want to talk about the systematic sexual abuse in the catholic church, which has of course tarnished image greatly. how did he do and tackling that

serge in that biggest issue about well, i mean if you asked about and if you ask his base, i think that his, his supporters will basically say that he did as much as he could possibly do. but certainly was not enough my view, i mean, and this is really a matter of opinion is that he essentially failed that some sort of things that were really quite important. one has to keep in mind that in 2001 benedict convinced then pope john paul to move the handling of sex abuse cases from the different day offices around the world to the vatican, directly under his own watch, read singer to watch at that point by the time that he left sort of, you know, decade a decade later on the situation really has not been addressed. and it's not only that the crimes had not been, you know, had not been essentially adjudicated. the fact is that many of the structures that had guaranteed the permanence of sexual abuse, we're still in place and we're not. and we're not touch, including, for instance,

ecclesiastical secrecy, which actually guarantees stud, you know, priests will be protected within the space of the church, at least that there will not be authorities word in that was actually changed only 2 years ago or 3 years ago, right before the pandemic by by francis as martin got our religious affairs correspondent. thank you so much. oh, you're very welcome. paul. people around the world were celebrating the arrival of the new year with fireworks on saturday night. it was a different story and the english designed town of scarborough and that's because of the sky, a walrus nicknamed for the local council cancelled the midnight spectacle. so as not to frighten this rare visitors of this very visitor to you. k. sure. the way from is much needed rest a little prematurely as a turnout. he handed back to see about 7 hours before the new year. that's our time, but make sure to stay in touch with our team and what are they

w news and myself. nicole underscore 1st. thank you so much for spending part of your day with ah, with a pulse with the beginning of a story that moves us and takes us along for the ride.

it's all about the perspective. culture information. this is dw d, w made from mines. a secret war that began over 40 years ago has been waging relentlessly even until today. the war between iran on one side and on the other israel and the united states. we explored the roots of this conflict in the 1st part of our documentary, the long israel usa in 45 minutes on d w. ah, we've got to wonder, stand that globalization works,

but he does not reach more than 30 percent of the world population. very simple, that facility that's very convenient for the chinese. after all the port will be for very exclusive use, but i am the mediterranean as potomac, kind of great sarcophagus. if anything he was proud of, it was to be a steal worker, like his grand parents and his parents. this is his business, the company of all that life. well, the winners and losers. globalization, where do we stand? starts january 5th on d, w with blue.