a slow leak in february on d, w. ah ah ah, this is dw news live from berlin tonight as the russian invasion of ukraine hits the one year mark, a call for peace from the you went. the united nations is preparing to vote on a resolution calling for an end to the fighting. the results are not binding, but they could be a barometer on global sentiment one year into this war. we'll get the latest from new york plus. we meet a couple who enlisted as volunteers in ukraine,

civil defense forces, and have just returned from the battle fields in eastern ukraine. and germany expels to iranian diplomats from berlin, the order following a death sentence imposed in tehran against a german iranian national on terrorism charges. ah, i bri. gov to our viewers watching on p b. s. in the united states into all of you around the world. welcome, the united nations general assembly is holding an emergency session this hour, just hours before the 1st anniversary of rushes invasion of ukraine. the assembly is considering a draft at 10 point plan to end the fighting a plan that was outlined by ukraine's president vladimir zalinski. you would secretary general antonio, but here dash has repeated his calls for the conflict to end. and he has once again

called for respect to be shown for the un charter delegates are expected to vote on the resolution shortly just are very oh nina spoke. she is, follow me the debate for us at the you in, in new york. she joins me now. if you heard the german foreign minister's speech there before the un general assembly, she was basically telling the world wide germany, it's on ukraine side. what stood out to you pseudo, to me, brent, how emotional this is speech started. she said it takes 45 minutes between your hear the sirens, and a missile hits key even what these 45 minutes mean to the people, to parents, to children. and that's her approach. she wanted to tell them the world to convince the world that this war matters for everyone. it matters to the people in ukraine,

but it also matters to the rest of the world. why is that? because russia is fighting or is not, is it is, was in waiting or isn't waiting. and i got a country or no legal terms. and if actually russia is able to do that, other countries my to follow. and that's kind of what she tried to convince her the state to will be voting any minute here that it is important to stand on the un charter and to condemned things, which are just not right. and as we said in the beginning of the program, this voting, this resolution can be seen as a barometer on concerning global sentiment on this war on russia and ukraine on the west standing with ukraine to meet. do we have any idea of how this vote is going to turn out? but there's a lot of concern here that not as many nations as before will be voting for our,

this resolution. and i had the chance to ask on elena, about our foreign minister directly after she delivered the speeds. what she thinks held to turn i'd will be. she seems to be quite optimistic, optimistic. she talking that she also herself intensely, tried to convince leaders from brazil, for example, by the expectation is that they won't reach again this $140.00 plus a nation's members of the end to join this resolution as they were able to do right after the war and then last october, when a 143 nations condemned this war and in is, we know that these resolutions, they're, they're not legally binding but, but still they're, they're important. so assuming that the wind does approve the resolution, what is it going to mean then for the war in ukraine? it's very safe to say that they will, that they will get the majority to vote for this resolution. it doesn't have any

kind of concrete output, but as you put in a brand new, a barometer, i kind of for the sens, how the world feels about issues. and i, it is a really a huge question. how countries, for example, from the global south, we'll continue what they will think about the ongoing support with ukraine because we've heard weiss is saying, let's stop this war right away. this is the most important thing to happen. and even if that would mean that ukraine would lose some territory to put him w's in his poll there at the un headquarters in new york, waiting for that vote on a resolution calling for the fighting to stop one year into the russian invasion of ukraine in his thinking as in his was, are mentioning germany's foreign minister handling a bare bach. she was among the speakers to day at the you when and she has said

that it is time to bring the fighting to an act each and every one of us here to day has an opportunity to contribute to this piece plan. by telling the aggressor to stop, by making clear that it's not peace, if an aggressive talents it's victim to simply give up, that it's not peace if an aggressor is rewarded for its ruthless violence. this would run counter to the very essence of our united nations shot him it was the german foreign minister speaking just hours ago in new york or the fighting has devastated you crated it. has it a major impact on the global economy and on international relations? the u. n. has recorded more than 8000 civilian deaths from the fighting, but it says the real figure is probably higher around

a 3rd of ukraine's population has been displaced. millions have fled their home country. the un says more than 17000000 ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance. russia has suffered or repeated setbacks on the battlefield, but it still controls almost one 5th of ukrainian territory. thousands of ordinary ukrainians have joined the effort to defend their country against russia. i spoke earlier with our correspondent mathias bellinger. he is in the city of her keith, and i asked him, who are these volunteers and what motivates yes, this was one of the very or impressive things that happened in the 1st days of the war. these long queues in front of the enlistment offices are where people from all walks of life have joined the army and ethics exactly what we have been seeing for the past year. whenever you visited positions. these are really people of all ages

. there are 60 year olds and 18 year olds. there are men and women a lot less women than men, but still a considerable number. um and there are academics people, i've been working in the academy of sciences along with construction workers. so it's really something that many people in ukraine felt they had to do at that time . and germany of them didn't even have any military training or experienced before that it was something that they felt they had to do. and they thought they could contribute something. ukraine has created a unit, a military unit for those people without a prior experience, a few years before the war, they started in the month before the war. they picked up. these were the territorial defense units. these were a people where basically everybody could join before the war. it was some kind of a, a weekly training. and these people would then went to war and i have met 2 of them

one year ago. and now again, and let's see, their story is the 1st time in months that martin and salia able to take a leisurely stroll through their home. tony key for the hall, shall yo yo yo. both of them are on furlough. this time it's like to return completely to the time before war. i seen, keel like are in use after a few months since the beginning of war. elizabeth is good to have a place where you could return from the front line and understand that. that's why the school we met martin and say one year ago, both had just enlisted in ukraine's territorial defense and newly created army unit for people without military training or experience pro.

all the stuff that you couldn't with just 0 and the more this on the don't the common doris. you know, they seems very simple. but in general, when you're started to do it, it's quite difficult. the threat of an invasion was already looming, although many thought put in might just be bluffing. marta however, wanted to be prepared. it's difficult to explain to foreign this of i v r. i exactly know what to expect from russia, but this happens in our history. many, many times when they just physically destroy all fruits of the brain as there were many doubts, what the saturday warriors could achieve. the answer came quicker than many thought . listen. originally, the territorial defense was formed to support the army behind the lions. but many with his battalions have long been sent to the front lines, including the brutal battle fears of don bass.

this is where martin and say you have just returned from say he is fighting at the front line while martyr. a medic by profession serves at a rescue point. oh, i'm still afraid, but a woods already happens when i knows if they have to go there. you know, i just could go. otherwise, i would never go there. it is the 1st time that both have a longer ferla with the war is far from over. and the fighting has recently intensified closely. i was not really optimistic on the 1st month. so for what i have feeling that elusive between that i me see how army became stronger and they really proceed outside in downtown keith.

a few traces of the war can still be found. like these destroyed battle tanks that the authorities have put on display. marta and say i however have seen enough of these war is their reality. no. mit is your story. it makes clear a point or is the reality for so many ukrainians. so many civilians are now on the front lines fighting it. what kind of effect is that having on the day to day functioning of ukrainian society? yes, you add those who have left the country, then of course a lot of the basically active population of the workforce are not available at the moment. and of course, this reflects on businesses, et cetera, but of course, much more than that are the toll of, of having so many people fight being wounded, being killed, of course, affects society. everybody has friends,

relatives at the front lines and many people. now, the longer the war last of course, have also lost friends or relatives. but it also this also as the fact that so many people from your neighborhood, from your family are on the front front lines, of course also leads to a people feeling very closely. i'm very close to the army and the solidarity with the army is hi, angela. charity, inside the society is high. so that there's, we, we don't see any signs of disintegration there. so many people volunteering or collecting money or whatever to support the country or the refugees, the civilians or the army mathias. we remember that after russia illegally annexed crimea, back in 2014. we saw it particularly in eastern ukraine, the rise of independent militias. and there was

a lot of criticism that there was no official oversight over these militias, and that some of them were affiliated with the far right groups. far right. ideology has ukraine been able to overcome this and get these militia under control? is a very different situation. now at the time the army was basically a badly functioning if a functional at all and was not able to get together enough combatants to send to these front lines. and that's where many people rushed in. people from a radical groups right wing radical groups, but also troops. they were put together by oligarchy. and with time, of course, there was anxiety, not only because of their convictions, but also because the question is, how do you control them? how do you a minimize the risk that some of them will attack at some point and kick off something that you don't want to kick off as a state as a government?

so what the government did is they integrated most of these formations all of these formations, almost into the regular forces, either the interior ministry or the armed forces and transformed them into regular army units. so you, we do not see this, these kind of formations any more. we do see a few volunteer battalions while until means and not only that, they have volunteered to fight, but they are also not receiving for example, and you pay. but these are very few, they're mostly for some of the foreign legions both. and they also have to work closely with the army. so there is no risk of something being not controlled by the army did abuse, but he has bellinger in hockey to night on the eve of the one year mark of the russian invasion of ukraine. but he is a so it is being seen as a clear sign of international indignation over russia's attack on ukraine.

delegates meeting in vienna at the a with see the organization for security and cooperation in europe. boycotted the session because the russian representative was present the year with c. e is comprised of 57 countries. it was created during the cold war to promote east west dialogue. ukraine wants russia to be expelled, but the rules of the ofc make that unlikely. natalia peeper is a ukranian member of parliament. she came to the hope brig indiana to take part in the o. s. e 's parliamentary assembly. but now that she's here, she won't be going inside. why? because the russian delegation has arrived and martyrs are in prison. it this reason why fi are boycotting as this session of o. s. c, because martyrs is on the table of negotiation. delegations representing ukraine and lithuania are boycotting the event, and a slovakian member of parliament left the assembly on behalf of ukraine. we must

not let these warmongers win. not now, not ever allowed. okay. and yet the president of the parliamentary assembly believes that russians should be present, but thinks that now was not the right time for dialogue with russia coming one year into this offered war. it is indeed the momentum to further increase pressure on russia on to do or we can to ensure that you're hearing it words unified support for ukraine. makita put her eye of head of the ukrainian delegation demands reforms within the o. s e e. one country member always starts war of aggression against another country member. ah, the net presence offer is delegation in o. c. b should be suspended on top of all this, every os c member country has veto powers because of moscow's veto. the

organization has had to stop projects in ukraine, went on to diplomacy, and the death penalty. germany is expelling to iranian diplomats to protest a death sentence imposed in tehran against a german iranian activist, accused of terrorism, human rights organizations and say, john xiv shamar that was abducted abroad and forcibly taken to iran. the european union has joined the german government in condemning the debts it to iranian diplomats expelled from germany at short notice as a response to the death sentence handed out to jam, she'd shar maud, a dual iranian german citizen here, pictured during his 1st hearing at an islamic revolutionary court into iran. iran claims he is the leader of an outlawed pro marchis group that carried out the deadly bombing of a mosque in 2008 family and human rights groups. reject the accusations against the

journalist and software engineer who is a u. s. resident. in a tweet. german chancellor or left shots criticized the verdict. the iran regime is battling its own people in every imaginable way. and is this regarding human rights? the death sentence against john chad shar mud is unacceptable. we condemn it in the strongest terms and call the ron regime to overturn the ruling. the german foreign ministry says it's working to provide consular support. the shar mod. iran has so far denied access to him as it doesn't recognize dual nationality for iranians. the ron born leader of the german green party, part of the governing coalition says germany is taking steps in the right direction in dealing with the case when and or if a german citizen is executed any rom because he's a journalist than they won't be any normalization of relations with iran,

but for the foreseeable future, dealt with this regime. the court's decision can still be appealed. despite the difficult circumstances, shy months family and the german government hope that his death sentence can be overturned. and now i'm joined by the zill sherman, that she is the daughter of john she'd sherman, she joins me now from los angeles. it's good to have you in the program. i appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. i just want to ask you, are you in contact at all with your father? now? i know unfortunately i can't talk to my father anymore. in the 1st year when they kidnapped him, i was still allowed to talk to my dad, but it was not out of human reasons because they wanted my dad to talk to me. it was to put pressure on me to provide a false evidence for their court hearings. they wanted me to write a letter to write that made out as a terrorist leader, all of those things. and they wanted to exit on my computer and of course be

refused. since then i'm not going on. and you, so have you been given a reason and they told you why you or you can't speak with your father? no, i mean have they given a reason? yeah, as i, as i said, we did not cooperate with them. they were planning to, they were planning to start short trials the next year and to portray my dad as a criminal as a terrorist. that's what they do with opponents, that's what they do with critics. they want to show them as bad people, so they can execute them in their system. and they want me to take part in it and write the letters and use them. and i said no, and they broke out the context for 9 months. we did not know if my dad was alive and now it's only sporadically when my mom can talk to them will help us understand exactly what, what happened with your father. i understand you say that this was not an arrest. you say your father was abducted and that that happened outside of iran. tell us what happened. yes, actually this is an ongoing kidnapping because we still don't know where my father

is. there is no prison where we have access to where we can see where they're keeping his locations still secret. this is an ongoing kidnapping. my father was on a short business trip and traveling from germany to india, and he had to stop in due by that was during the pandemic. his life got cancelled. he stranded there and that's where the kidnapped him. my mom was very boy and she found out that he was waiting for his next sight into bite. but he opened up his google track and she, she can see where he is. and on the google tracker she could see while he was not responding to us, but he was not picking up the phone anymore that his location was moving towards oman and then over the border of a month towards the coast. and that's where he broke off the very next day. the stomach regime released a video where he is blindfolded with a swollen face and he's forced to confessions. and then the intelligence minister iran fed, he was taken into complex operations with this is a kid,

nothing. and it's still not been an acknowledged by even germany or the u. s. that a german citizen was kidnapped. we're not even talking about that. well, do i mean that that's one point. i mean, the fact that this is going to be news to a lot of people. how is the new government? how did they say there was a connection at all with the discharge of terrorism and your father? that islamic regime has done this for 44 years. they always taking that things that go on in the, in their country for example explosions and anything that goes on any, any misery that goes on and use them as and turn them into terra plots and say, oh these were, this was move up. this was the cia, these are outside people. these are terrorists as i drink things, and here when you report about them and when you talk about them, then then they try to find

a connection there. and they have done this over and over. you can see right now what they're doing with the protesters, they're not thank you. we're going to execute you because you protest that they say, oh, you killed a c, g, or you kill somebody from from our government. and they use this to execute people to silence to silence people, but the false charges nothing about it is true and i hit when it's always repeat that the charges are false. it gives you the german government today did expel to iranian diplomats from the embassy here in berlin. we also understand that the european union has condemned the death sentence for your father. this is action. is it the kind of action that you and your family want to see. ringback is a very good 1st that i'm glad that finally we can see some actions going on. it is very late. i don't know when, when they were able to expel these people. why wasn't it done when

a german citizen was, was kidnapped and taken to iran and is being tortured for $930.00 days in isolation? why? why does it take that was charged to do that because there are you in touch with the german government? anyone from the foreign office? anyone who was talking to you as a liaison between your family and your father via the german government? are you in touch with anyone here in berlin? and yes, we're talking to the and foreign ministry. of course it's, it's not somebody who can tell us anything about what's, what is really going on, what they're doing behind the scenes. but we have somebody who talks to us, it's the same person who would probably talk to you and give you the same information that's. that's another problem that we don't have insight into. what is being really done to save my, my dad. we don't have a person there that can, that can answer my questions on. is this going to be the 1st step and the only step what's going on is i've got about, i've got about a minute. let me clear it. so you are in touch with the foreign ministry here in germany, but you're, you're not satisfied with what germany is doing for,

for your father, who's a german citizen. right. i'm not a brief on that. yeah. no, of course they don't tell me what they're going to do. this is a big problem, and i always ask, and what do you want them to do? which i have, i have no idea it's, it's, this is about a go ahead to where we go, where you can finish with all we've got about 30 seconds. go ahead. yes. by professional, i am a nurse, i save lives and it's, it's the same. it's the same thing as if my patient would come to me and say, is this enough? have we done enough to state this patient that i am the professional? i should know how to save life and our government have the same responsibility. they have to save our people's lives, our citizens, and i have not seen that and it's very, very late. but i hope that lead from now on we will see some real actions. brazil, charm on the daughter of the german, iranian activist. young she'd sure maud,

we appreciate you taking the time, telling us the story and so on your father. thank you. thank you so much for having me. you want to dw news after a short break. i'll be back to take you through the day. stick around. we will be right back with ah with

ah ah ah, there's is the story of many ukrainians before rushes invasion, marta and siri had trained as volunteers for emergencies. since the beginning of the war, they have been in combat. even fighting directly at the front focus on europe. in 60 minutes on d. w. o.

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