ah ah ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin, russian president vladimir putin, rails against the west in his state of the nation speech. putin accuses the west of starting the war and ukraine with the aim of destroying russia. he also announces a fund to help relatives of russian soldiers who died in combat. but he gives

little indication that the war will be over any time soon. ah. a mariner evans dean, it's good to have you with us. russian president vladimir putin has falsely accused the west of starting the war and ukraine during his state of the nation and dress. and he said that russia would be impossible to defeat on the battlefield. protein lazed. his speech with dis, information was speaking to an audience of military and political elites and moscow, and all of russia in the televised event should be val, that he would continue russia's offensive in ukraine. he also said that the majority of people in ukraine's eastern don barzyk region want to be russian, you know, put it with more. here's what he said about the people of the border region of

eastern ukraine in 2014, the turbos variable. what i, what i started fighting for, it's right to speak their own language to the home when i have overcome the blockade. i have always been here on the attack stuart. i see you and to persons living there have always hoped that russia would come to rescue them. i'm joy now in the studio by richard walker. deville is chief international editor and standing by for us, and bon is russia analyst, roman, going to ranko rome, and good to see you. so i'd like to begin with you. we heard vladimir putin speaking there focused quite a lot on the west, at least in the 1st half of his remarks. and he put the blame on western powers for starting the war in ukraine. he had quite a lot to say, but not

a lot of it was actually the truth wasn't yes, exactly, this is what struck me well. what im reporting is famous for mixing facts and effects and fiction. and he started from the very beginning. he said his basic message was, they started this war, we're just using force to stop it, which is of course, a lie. and here accused ukraine of planning to retake don barza crimea, which is not true for that moment. a year ago, ukraine was not willing or planning any attacks on the territories under russian control. so he also accused, he said, and it does surprise me. his wording surprised me. he said that it is normal, pedophilia is normal in the worst, which is of course, a blatant lie. so he was trying to mobilize his people for a kind of a anti western crusade. and it is interesting that he wasn't, there was not much of a nuclear saber rattling that many,

many people expected. he just said some, some, somehow vaguely i would say, he said, and the worst is saying that they are planning or they want to this regional conflict to become a global stand of. this is how we understand it. said the logic we're put in. but there was no, no immediate nuclear threat from him or i missed maybe something. and, and this is an important secret signal, of course, from his speech in a row. and he also claimed that russia was not fighting against the ukrainian people, but rather. c against the ukrainian regime, he accused of being neo nazis and that in fact most ukrainians were waiting for russia to liberate them. do people in russia believe this kind of disinformation? well we do not have a reliable. ready polls from russia, but want to be here is that there is a majority of russian population that are supporting those ideas. it's

a relative majority. a lot of people are just trying to stay away out of politics, but she's messages resonate with a lot of russian people. so because they, they've been repeating them the russian media, i mean, and present himself for years and years and years. so these words are, do that resonate, and that is why he's using them. he's using specifically the nurses to, to draw the line between the nazi germany, the 2nd world war and what russia is doing now in ukraine. and richard, another argument that we've heard from vladimir putin. again, this is something that he's talked about many times before is that the west has a lie to the west has withdrawn from fundamental agreements and expanded nato all the way to rush as border is essentially creating as put in, put it a kind of a, an umbrella over russian territory threatening the stability in the security in the

territorial integrity of russia. so this is why they had to defend themselves and start this war. is any of this actually accurate? well, i mean, this is basically the, the russian, you could say, narrative from proteins point of view is the explanation for why this war is taking place. why russia invaded ukraine, that the expansion of nato has been in his eyes a threat to russia. and that essentially he was forced to act. now one reason why i think he's, he's very keen to use this narrative is narrative that has some traction and get some understanding in some other parts of the world. clearly in china and when you look at the chinese position, which we heard pretty well exposed over the weekend to the munich security

conference here in germany. chinese top diplomat was there. and while he talks about sort of principles like the sovereignty of states and the territorial territorial integrity of states, which is basically diplomatic language for one country, can't just go and take bites out of another. at the same time, he talks very much about showing understanding for this narrative that there's an expansion is kind of united states here of influenced and that it is a threat to russia. and that the chinese see that will. so as a threat to it in asia. now, of course that nature is made very clear, absolutely not threatening russia in any way. there is absolutely no a threat. the nature wants to take any surgery from russia. the expansion of nato has happened because there are the former soviet states and

former satellites of the former soviet union that felt more secure if they were in nature. and that was decisions that those countries made certainly very much distortion of the situation and rich. and he also moved on to the topic of l g b t, right? that's a, another comment topic. and let me put in speech is sort of framing the west as degenerate. and as russia as being kind of a symbol of traditional family values, what did you make of those remarks? i think there is more time propaganda roman mentioned it to sally. i think, i think he said that, you know, in the west children are taught to be p as of it was laughable if it wasn't so offensive. but this is trying to rally the population of russia to a course that is broader than just strategic seeing the west as not just a perceived strategic threat to russia. a security threat, but also a kind of

a moral or cultural threat. and i think he sees added value in the, you know, there are, there are minorities in the west or populations at west texas, the population in the west who were involved to this sort of culture war over the sort of things. and i think he's hoping to sort of prod, people in western societies also think i don't really like l g b t writes to, to look more favorably on the war. but i think kind of, what if you take one step back from this further, you know, presenting this as a, i think the word with presenting. this is a strategic threat to russia that it's fighting back against. and a kind of moral and cultural threat couldn't try to have it both ways where he, because at the same time he's referring to this war as a special military operations or the one have you tried to down play it. on the other hand, he's tried to hide it up into something that is truly existential. and that is where you do see rubber mentioned. there was no explicit nuclear threat, but there was a very,

very slight veiled hint at nuclear threat under the fact that he said that this is about the very existence of the russian state. and in the russian nuclear code, it says that they would only use nuclear weapons if that states very systems was threat so buried under there a little way was nuclear threat. that was the w, achieve international editor origin walker with me in the studio and in bond russia analyst, roman country, ankle. thank you both for your insights or for a reaction now to vladimir putin speech in the cranium capital key rejoined by our correspondent funding for char. so funny what have the reactions been to put in remarks from keith? they are no official reactions yet, but ordinary people just very perceive the speech by vladimir putin as rather cynical, austin the light of the fact obviously what happened and what this country's going through since february 24th last year. but already since 2014,

if you look at what used to be sort of like a regional conflict in the don bus region. so really they are, they are wandering just why doesn't fleming to put in at least answer the question just how long this war is going to go on and put it in, didn't answer that or he didn't actually make any remarks to that. but what he did say that is raising some eyebrows here among people is that he accuses to west quote of letting the genie out of the bottle. so what does that actually mean? does it actually mean that there is a nuclear threat after all looming, because they have been so many various a tactics of threatening this country and attacking this country during the course of the past 12 months is going to be the next. a thing that russia has up its lease, so there is this concern even though as my colleagues just pointed out there, put, it didn't say anything about that. and it's interesting actually what he didn't talk about at all, which was president biden's visit here yesterday. he

a really try to put the u. s. and the west into this a sort of global structure trying to attack russia and painting russia as the country that needs to defend itself. so pretty much the same propaganda you've heard over and over during the course of the past year. what i find quite interesting here though, is that he was really looking to reach to domestic audience here because one needs to understand that you are elections coming up. presidential elections in russia next year. so it's not just that and who to new drum up support among other the population for this war, but also amongst the political elite so that he can maintain his power. regardless how the swore continues. and when elections are coming up next year, database fun if a child reporting from care. thanks for that funny to other news now and 2 more powerful earthquakes have hit the turkey syria border region, rescue teams once again to ploy to find people trapped under the rubble. the

magnitude 6.4 and 5.8 tremors, drugs as minutes apart, and just 2 weeks after massive quakes killed tens of thousands in the very same time province. while the epa centers of the latest quakes were in southern turkey, they were found as far away as lebanon and egypt turkeys. interior minister says at least 6 people have been killed and hundreds injured. more anguish and title for the people of turkey and syria. moments after the new earthquake struck shocked, residents rushed to the streets for safety and to try and make contact with people . all the other families clung to one another, relieved to be okay, but reeling with the shock and trauma off it all. over the oldest just 2 weeks after the devastating earthquakes which so far are confirmed to have killed at least $45000.00. some buildings severely damaged by those have now collapsed

because of the latest ones. for many, the safest place to be now is on the street. ah, line of who i know the design feel you the same feeling of unease. we cannot enter inside one. if we do, we cannot stay. we don't know. we don't know what to do. god have mercy on us. there's nothing to save. people here know that lights can change in an instant dis, dash come. footage caught that instant in happy and alive. tv interview was dramatically cut short. the moment the quake struck credited from older georgia. good this, i'll let you all go. use it in neighboring syria. the old quaker also brought new venue. is that the lena adams at rehab? i'm is it had everyone started screaming when the old quaker code people were panicking and started crying and screaming and vote and shot in my head that hold on so long. it's a sad reality of life here, right now. people living on

a precipice from one minute to the next. and before we go, we have some breaking news for you and german. iranian national has been sentenced to death in tehran, following a controversial trial on corruption charges. jam sheets are marked as a journalist and political dissident. iran claims he headed, a pro monarch, his group accused of carrying out a deadly 2008 bombing in the country. we'll have more in that developing story throughout the day. up next is business with janelle de milan with more and vladimir putin speech. thanks for watching. ah, ah, every journey is full of surprises. we've got all out to give you some tips why they in.