idea that it's about politics and between people will come by. and so fortunately, we don't see a genuine societal into ukrainian sentiment among normal population. yet it might come because the government might want to start to fuel it. but at the moment, i wouldn't say this was the case senior vladimir putin recently, but constantly refers to russia within its historic borders. that being one of his rationale for the invasion is, is this war ultimately, perhaps more about russian imperialism than about russian. brotherly nurse, definitely. ah, because we don't see any foundation to his claims. what, what is he talking about when he refers to the russian empire, or what is he talking about when he says that you grain is ruled by nazis. you know, one of the favorite narratives of russian propaganda. ah, of course, it has no,

no real claims because ukraine has its borders. ukraine is a sovereign independent state that has had its borders since 991. and ukraine also gave up their power to protect themselves, to gain the sovereignty. when they weighed it just gave up their nuclear weapons. so ukraine. sacrifice a lot for the independence. ukraine, of course, had it's, you know, phase is as a young state, but ukraine has always since then been a sovereign independent state with its own path, with its own ambitions and so on. so of course, these claims mean nothing. marcus, it's not only you go to russia that has been accused of reverting to imperialist stereotypes. in fact, germany's hesitation and ambivalence that it has shown at various times over the past year in terms of supporting ukraine has been very fiercely criticized by some as a whole. over of german imperialist or neo colonial attitudes,

i think that has nothing to do with imperialism. i think it has to do more with realism and get used to the change, the political environment we're confronted with. this has been the, has been at the core of the so called site and then the turning point of german foreign security policy during the last year. and i think we have seen the signs over at say, 10 years emerging in the emerging new world, all are characterized by multiple, multiple charity and view policy through politics. and some european parts have realized this way before us. i think of paul and the baltic states ukraine and other countries as well. and so so many is simply adjusting to this new reality. and one is tristan is that the speed with certain

political paradigms of german 4 the court would hold true for 30 years have gone out of the window for example, that you can only create europe interior security together with ross. i know it would claim this any more about creating or sustaining european security with the old russ all against russia. and this is one only one example for this. that's called a paradigm shift of foreign and security policy of germany. is india with all the suffering and the existential danger that ukrainian space do? they still have the energy and the will to tackle challenges like corruption, like an essentially re stewing and a restoring and renewing political institutions, which clearly would be prerequisites for them ever to be admitted to the you. exactly, and i would say absolutely because ah, one thing is, you know that any that you could die and this is the reality that you, he has

a living and nobody is safe. you can die any time any day, anywhere if you are within the territory. but at the same time, they have a perspective and this is very important because in hard black, dark times like this, you need to think about the future. and the european union gave them this new perspective something to look forward to. and of course the prerequisites are very tough and they have to be completed in order even, you know, for the, for ukraine to be revised as a candidate. so they're very determined and i think there is a lot of not only the politicians who have to deliver because they will be asked by by the european counterparts or that you counterparts. but this societal pressure is growing because the society really wants to see the results and they want to be part of the you and they want to have negotiations even within this year. so. meanwhile, alex, a societal pressure is not growing a in regard to vladimir putin,

at least societal opposition. not how strong is his hold on people one year on, i think is quite substantial. i also thing that the unpleasant truth is that for an a talk with you like russia is, it's quite a pleasant mode of conduct to be in the war in a limited war because you know, your position, your dissidence are either in jail or frightened or out of the country, you have this whole mobilization narrative saying look, this is an existential thing. let's pull together all forces under the same time, the elite are so far, quite unified behave, let him put him because there is no viable alternative for them. and there is no clear picture of the future and interesting if you listen to his spitters, which is a complicated has to do, but i'm going to pay for it. so i do that. he tries to paint an image of the future where there is no end to this war. this is where we'd really guess or well yeah, this hasn't been the case last year, but if listen to him,

she doesn't mention any war goals. she just say, she just says the economy will be stable, that will help the teachers will have the refugees. there will be additional leave for the soldiers coming back. all the small instruments saying, don't worry about the big picture. life will be good without spelling out how this war ends, and this means his hold empowers actually quite good. let's dive deeper on that very point. both putting and joe biden took the approaching anniversary of the russian invasion to send some key messages and prepare their listeners for protracted conflict. at deviousness the responsibility for the ukraine conflict, al hort's escalations and for the rising number of victims. if you lie soley with the western latency and with a current regime in chief to which the ukrainian people are basically strangers, did you usually one year on a one year end of his war, food no longer doubts the strength of our goal isn't. but he still doubts our conviction. he does our staying power,

but there should be no doubt. our support for grey will not waiver later will not be divided and we will not tire. let me go straight to america and ask you about the at the end of that statement from biden, he says, our support will now waiver, but reportedly the biden administration has told kias that it well could waiver, especially if republicans won the next election. what do you think will that happen? not the election will will the support waiver? i think it's, it's fair to say that the war has entered in new faith or is about 20 new faith with a lot of voices or voices in the earth becoming more vocal about and not supporting the ukraine indefinite the we see in chinese efforts, maybe not to end the war, but to provide some kind of mediation and i wouldn't bet on the political landscape

in europe. i mean, we have elections and next couple of years or months and years and that road the european countries. and so far, the immediate effect of the war and european economies have been quite mitigated. therefore, i could imagine a scenario 2 years from now and with the support for ukraine will be waning. and then we'll go, clint, totally the picture. alex, a put in, in his speech, appeared to be offering material incentives to russians who keep the conscripts coming. what effect do you think that will have, is he essentially buying our families to sacrifice their sense? he does, but you also have to see the russian economy has performed historically not bad in the last 20 years under put him, but it has an end of poverty in russia. and in some respect, you will also claim that teresa will regence of her level the material level of

life of people has gone down the war. and this is another unpleasant truth, a war as a social elevator. it gives people opportunities to earn money and to advance, at least in their minds, ah, their material well being for their families. so it's not necessarily just buying or families who are grieving. it's actually offering some people are a way out of their material situation. and this is unpleasant, but this is the case the m, it's often said that who wins a war depends very much on hearts and minds. so you're telling us that russian hearts and minds are still absolutely with put in in this war. that's what i'm saying. but more so, the russians, most of the russians are not for this war and for put him. but most of the russians are not against the war. and this is the bigger political problem. it's a d, politicize, or morphic society, and that we need to take this into consideration senior joe biden and delivered at the speech that we heard that clip from in poland after having made a very unusual,

astonishing trip to key of in fact, the 1st time in memory that an american president has travelled to an active wards own where there are no us soldiers to support him. how much did that mean to people in ukraine? how much do they believe that western support will remain with them? well, they have no choice. of course it was, i think it was very encouraging to see him because he, he also risked his life because he was there. of course there are shelters everywhere where a kid he could have been, you know, her work. he could have been hiding, but he didn't want that obviously. ah, anyway, they saw that he took this major risk, and it was a huge support for them in this time where they're seeing that russia is mobilizing more troops. russia is throwing more weapons, more money into the game, but ukrainians simply have no choice. they have to keep negotiating,

keep cooperating with the west in order to get what they need. in order to get enough to stop this, our title asked a war without end war without a winner. how well prepared are ukrainians for this situation to continue? if the west stands with them, and if china doesn't start sending weapons to russia as the speculations art, then there is a good chance that ukraine would close this black hole that i was talking about. i'm afraid we'll have to leave it there. thank you so much to all of you for being with us. and thanks to all of you who are watching us, do check out our youtube channel and tell us what you think about this program with

. i'm sarah kelly. welcome to our special coverage. there has been no a lead up in the fierce fighting and eastern ukraine as the country marks one year to the day since russia began a full scale invasion. russian backed forces are today claiming that they have richard a village near the eastern city of buck moot. tens of thousands of troops on both

sides of the war have been killed, as well as thousands of ukrainian civilians. around a 3rd of ukraine's population has been displaced with millions leading humanitarian assistance. russia has suffered repeated setbacks on the battlefield, but still controls nearly a 5th of ukrainian territory and continues to hit civilians while targeting civilian infrastructure. this day is also significant for estonia, the country, a former soviet republic that shares a border with russia. it is celebrating its independence day to day and commemorations including marking the anniversary of russia's invasion of ukraine. sodium prime minister kaya collis, hosted a wreath laying ceremony in the capital talent. nato secretary general. yes, dalton. bert and e. u commission president ursula founder line were in attendance. the ceremony included a minute silence for ukraine. and let's bring in d,

w correspondent, max and our max. we're going to discuss the situation ukraine, but, but 1st just walk us through the various ceremonies in fact that we are going to be seeing today to, to mark this somber anniversary. right. so the 1st to event kicked off and these tony capital tell and this morning we saw quite solomon dignified event. i would, i would call it a rippling ceremony to mark these tony and independence with the prime minister of historian, kind of colors present that those secretary general can start back and you commission president, was it off on the line? was, was president as well. so a lot of historian works among those people gathered there attending the ceremony, but we also saw quite a few ukrainian pins on soldiers laying down these wreaths, the cranium masses, banners in the background. so this is a day to commemorate definitely the story, independence,

but also the one year marking of the start of the full scale invasion of your train and reiterating support and showing that the baltics nato. and you stand side by side, the nato secretary general. there you commission president of present what is the significance of that? right. so, i mean, you have the head of the, you, you commission was enough on the line representing the european union as a whole. you got nato secretary general, you installed that, representing the alliance. and of course, the, the prime minister of the country that they are in the reason that the nato and you are present there on this day is to show support show they stand side by side with the baltics. with studio is tonja is former soviet republic, like the other baltic states broke free from the soviet union after more than 50

years. so this also sends a strong message to russia. that's this is a situation where they dominate other countries. it's not a situation that europe will accept. in addition to that story, is one of the largest contributors to the war effort in ukraine, one of the largest per capita, donor of military and financial aid to the country. so this is not a coincidence that they are in estonia today, one year since prudent launched russia's invasion of ukraine. you've been in ukraine reporting many times and i'm wondering over the past year, what has stood out to you? right, so for me or what's that out, is that just to train rides away from berwin, you will find yourself in a war zone in the middle of europe, something that growing up here in germany, i would have probably never expected to, to experience this thing that they bring his lodges, russia couldn't invade crane and do what they are doing there at the moment. so

experiencing this seemed the destruction seemed destroyed. suburbs of key of talking to residence there were experienced as horrible atrocities in which for example, i traveled to the front lines are experiencing the, the outgoing artillery, the incoming being on the receiving end of that. at some point. this is also something that is very different from our everyday reporting that we usually do here in europe. but i would really, i think if you talk to, or anybody involved in coverage or any journalist or anybody traveling to your claim right now, or what really sticks to you is probably the experienced talking to people that met the incredible fight that koreans every day are are putting up the credible resilience, and you have so many stories from, from all over ukraine, one year into this. dreams have suffered immensely, but they have at the same time, put up this incredible, incredible fight. and leo determined, anybody you talk to usually they don't talk about the end of the war. they talk about after victory to mark the end of the war elantra. but the lansky says they

want everything back and they're going to get everything back, including crimea lacks. when you go to ukraine and you look at the situation, you know, on the battlefield, all the reports that we've been getting in. and by the way, we just want to tell our viewers that you're looking at live pictures right now. and we're watching ceremonies this as they proceed on. we're gonna keep these live pictures up for you so that you can get a sense of what is going on. um, does the lensky god know that have a capacity? does ukraine have the capacity to keep continuing to fight? when we look at just the sheer manpower, for example, i mean, you know, that the death toll is certainly piling up max that is with the $1000000.00 question. i'm with us doing it. well, it's a system that takes them back. let's go back one year. when we had this massive build up at the ukranian border in russia, in belarus, every, every expert,

every punnet was saying, oh, this is gonna take just a couple of days, maybe a couple weeks and careful fall on the majority of ukraine will be taken by the russians, ukraine war essentially become a part of a russian empire. this will go according to the ukrainian war plan at the russian were plan. none of that has actually happened, the ukrainians were able to defend their capital. so lensky stayed speaking up or watching zalinski live by the way, max on his honoring soldiers, there is a live pictures that you're watching a one year since russia launched. it's invasion of ukraine. what must be going through his life last at her? we really as little how was the countries all of those yoga commemorating this mom and was to do as the fighting, continued the country at war. i mean, the symbolic did but in essence probably doesn't change much. today's the 24th february 2023 a year ago the war broke out,

but the fighting continues just as it has yesterday, just as it will to more nothing major changes to day unless there are we'll see some surprises from the russian side as we've had we seen in the past actually, although selenium also marked special occasions to put it in those terms. years, for example, for christmas or even the landscape birthday russians launched a new model. major attacks with missiles on different ukrainian cities. there is been fear of or worries of a full scale, large offensive taking place at some point this spring. i walk us through that right now because we understand his fierce fighting, for example, in bye, moot in areas of the dumbass. i'm, you know, these cities that have seemingly now taken over these outside significance

are typically when you're talking about where they are in the position in the war. walk as to what is happening right now on the front lines and, and is this the russian offensive that, that the ukranian intelligence and authorities have been warning is coming. i mean that's, that's very difficult to say what the russians are planning on what they are threatening with and then what they will actually do at the same time. you also have communications coming from the ukranian side warning of threats coming from that a tax will be increased in eastern ukraine, potentially from the south region from the northern border with the rooster loose, who uses a new staging ground for attacks. so right now, the situation appears to be that in history, ukraine that there have been, the fighting is intensifying but no in no way to the scale that everybody has been

warning about ever since last fall when we were looking at slowing down the pace of fighting in ukraine towards the winter months, and there has been warnings then that perhaps was temperature changes once russia gain gathered more troops that there could be a larger offensive. but that, that so far hasn't, hasn't, has materialized yet. the ukrainians have been adamantly calling for tanks. and it's now been announced that they are going to get those tanks so that we understand that there are some complications with sending them in terms of logistics and whatnot. perhaps you can just walk us through. what is the status right now with that aspect with getting them those tanks that they say they so desperately need to change the tide on the, on the battlefield. right, so green in prison has been adamant. the tanks, the heavy weapons, not just tax, but also miss allison aircraft to take back the i want fighter jets also. now

fighter just a right to take back the territories that are being occupied by, by the russians and free their entire country. now this has been a long back and forth, and i'm here in germany and with other natal partners with other european countries with united states. whether or not, although the west would send tanks as it were, always as the fear when by sending any material to your train, that this might to be seen as further escalation, that nato or european countries may be drawn into, into this conflict. so after long back and forth, i finally, german chancellor decided that germany would send tanks and would allow its partners to send german made military equipment tanks after he managed to get the us on board. so the americans are sending their tanks are sending a number of tanks. germans are sending their lipper to tanks, that ukraine has been asking for for quite some time. and other european countries

are selling lepper to tanks as well. canada as well. for example, on european country, it's also sending lepper tanks, but not to the extent that was that was hoped for. so the majority of tanks at the moment it seems, is going to be coming from, from a, from, from germany. other countries, like denmark, for example, have, have pulled out. so the number of tanks is going to be a lot smaller than what the koreans had actually hope for. and max, i just want to walk on our viewers through what they have been seeing it. you know, we've been seeing many families actually come up right now. shake the hand of ukrainian president volota mesa landscape. one year on his russia began its invasion of ukraine. we talk about numbers, small it talk about the death toll. we know that the ukrainians had actually been quite tight lipped about what the actual death toll is. there's a human element here. you've met these families. what is, what is the loss of their loved ones? mean that what are they fighting for?

yeah, it is interesting because, i mean, we read about the death holes. we don't know exactly how many korean soldiers, how many men and women died there on the ukrainians. they published the year did their estimates for the russian deaths. we know this was far beyond a 100000, di, how we can expect on the ukrainian side is going to be similar in our this is a country of roughly 40000000 people. so you can imagine every one of these, one of these numbers is a person to know that the person with a family, when parents are looking at her children, at least partners. and i looked at them. and even if you're not in the front lines, and even if you're not mobile and it was talking to people there, you can go anywhere in anywhere in the country and you'll come across somebody who has friends fighting who has colleagues who were wounded or who lost their loved one, val will be more than

a factor during my last reporting trip. it is kink, little coincidence by coincidence. across i to 2 into any of your partners are both, both young women who had lost their, their, their boyfriends to the war. one of them and the other one and in hockey and we were dealing with that situation and even in cities for is leaf as far away from frontline. we'll walk through there through the all town warden and every, every now and then you will see a there's a funeral. yes. other people gathering other people in uniform standing by them so yes, it's become everyday life. it's become everyday life. everybody knows. everybody has lost somebody or know somebody who was, who has died during the fighting against while defending their country. and now we've had one year of this in ukraine and, and i think you know what you are articulating now, what it was so striking, actually about his cranium in the beginning of this invasion was the sense of

bizarre. we are going to push the russians back. this is our country. but one year of fighting max and so much loss. so talk with us a little bit about, you know, the trajectory of that sense of resolve and maybe where the mentality is. a people right now in ukraine as they have suffered so much loss in the past year. yeah. um, so what is the morale in my opinion? the morale is still high really high. yes. as i said, when we talk to you talk to to ukrainians. i talked about the future about future plans, you will, they will not tell you that we will do this or that after the war will do this or that after the victory. oh, so they, they believe exactly. they have to believe it's legible, especially the young. the young population or young young koreans who have like a, a european, a our, but national ukraine identity, whoever you create a european identity, who don't want to live in a, don't want to become a russia fight. don't want to live in a rushing coldly. so to say that's that's,

that's the only choice, but everywhere you go, you see people who are determined that to, to keep on supporting the troops on some are a lot you have students donating money people with, with, with little needs. you have a private people. i'm a guy, i and i met her who lost his job, was making this using his free time to help build barricades. i'm actions simple as that. everybody's pitching in summer to picking up arms. some are joined the military. some are going to fight, but yeah, george use the civil society, backing them up with, with anything they have. okay. just to remind our viewers, you're watching dw news. this is special coverage. one year to the day since russia began its full scale invasion of ukraine. you're watching president the load of mirrors, the lensky there. he has been honoring soldiers. he has been honoring the families

of fallen soldiers. you've seen many of them come up to him. shake his hand very emotional moments as the country commemorates the sombre anniversary. a country very much, still at war, very unclear. what will happen in the next days, what will happen in the next month? the fighting continues to rage on max. you know, we've been talking about the sense of resolve and the sense of motivation among the ukrainians to push the russians back even one year into this fighting. but it also has to be acknowledged, there were some serious blunders in the beginning on the part of the russians this, this invasion, most certainly did not go according to plan they, they essentially plans to take, even in a matter of days, walk us or what, what went wrong, actually in the beginning to then the advantage of the ukrainians. when we're looking at the russian side we put up with, right. so the way the russians plan this horse,

let's call it vase or take over of train. that was probably the 1st big mistake that they thought they could just roll up essentially what the key and take over take over the government. they did not expect to meet the resistance that they met. and then of course they had other issues. they had logistical issues, they had issues with a poorly trained soldiers, m a with a replenishment and the ukrainians were constantly adapting. and they had a better trained military that has been also better equipped through the course of the war. and they have constantly adapted to the changing scenarios. for example, just to be a simple example, lots of ukrainians. ukraine soldiers have started using the up civil still use drones like d, j, i drones, that you can buy buying a shop and you can do.