state up the news from the then you can get more news on our website to be found a d, w dot com the russian invasion of ukraine is quickly approaching the 18 months mark, one and a half years of war. in that time there has been one piece plan after another from china, south africa, the batt. again, nothing is worked. these plans. they have made no difference or have that today ukraine's because that why the united states warrant against any piece initiatives that attempt to bore the truth about how this war began. the message from americans, top diplomat, any attempt to legitimize russia's aggression in the name of peace will only make it easier to launch the next invasion. i break off in berlin. this is the day. the

war of aggression against ukraine has been a strategic failure. greatly dimension russians power, its interest and its influence. for years to come or put a name to project strength is revealed weakness. where he sought to divide his united baptism. this failed to achieve his aims. he hasn't given up on he's convinced that he can simply outlast ukraine. tennis supports investing in your brain strength is not at the expense of diplomacy. it pays the way for the funds. also coming up, the russian president, vladimir putin, is accused of war crimes in ukraine by the international criminal court. if something were to travel abroad when he really be arrested. as the setup is design, international law is clear on the points. international law makes clear the war criminals, those responsible for wars of aggression, wouldn't they be held responsible,

unfortunately. good. so which of our viewers watching on cbs in the united states and to all of you around the world? welcome. we begin the day with a lasting peace for ukraine, a reminder of what that is supposed to look like. airstrikes against key drone attacks and la scale and pleasures to send fighter jets to ukraine. no one talks much about peace at the moment, and understandably served. after almost 18 months of war, russian forces showed no signs of pulling back or backing down, and ukraine, armed with western weapons, is about to embark on a counter offensive. imagining an end to this conflict may be difficult, remembering why and how it began should not. that is the message from america's top diplomat, us secretary of state anthony blanket. he says that any attempted piece cannot and should not be an attempt to justify what russia has done to ukraine. or did you

take a listen to what blinking said earlier today in finland. when you look at president, put his long term strategic gains and objectives. there is no question. russia is significantly worse off today than it was before its full scale invasion of ukraine, militarily, economically, politically, we're putting name to projects frank. he's revealed weakness where he sought to divide. he's united criminal off and claimed it had the 2nd strongest military in the world. and many believed today. many c rushes military as the 2nd strongest in ukraine. it's equipment, technology, leadership troops, strategy tactics, and morales, a case study and failure while putting his failed to achieve his things. he hasn't given up on, seems convinced that he can simply outlast ukraine and it supports sending more and more russians to their deaths. inflicting more and more suffering on your brain,

civilians, he thinks that even if he looses the short game, he can still win the long game. putting is wrong about this too. that was the us secretary of state there and to the blinking. i want to pulling out the w as terry shows, she's in brussels, the she was also listening to the us secretary of state today. jerry is going to see you on this friday evening. let's talk about location, location, location here, blinking was in helsinki today. now not long ago, finland was a neutral country and had pretty good a reasonable relations with russia. my have things have changed, haven't they? certainly and as the finished president pointed out, when he announced that finland had changed all of those things dramatically and was deciding to join nato if, if a lot of your putting wants to know why he should look in the mirror. so is feeling would have been content to stay in this non aligned status for the foreseeable future. the prime minister sort of modern, at the time,

said that she didn't even expect this to come up seriously during her tenure, which of course just ended. so this is something that's turned around a $180.00 degrees with the rushes invasion of ukraine in, in february. so february, who more than a year ago. and yeah, the fins just changed on a dime and it was all due to put in it rushes invasion of ukraine. it's almost one and a half years old. now we're expecting a ukrainian counter offensive at any moment. this war will most likely get worse before we can ever talk about anything getting better with that in mind. what do you think was the point of secretary of state anthony blinking speech today? this, this is going to be a long answer brands, because as i was listening to this page, i was thinking ok, this part is for the fins. this part is for the russians. so i'll go through some of those, those thoughts that i had. of course 1st he was speaking to the friends and

somebody with a very deep knowledge of finish history are very good. google ability wrote this speech because there are so many parts in it that are particularly special defense talking about the winter war when they beat back russia mostly by themselves after false flag attempts, these really ring div with with fins. and so he definitely was there 1st of all to, to really congratulate the fins on their decisions and, and to warmly welcome them into, into nato. but then of course, the title of the speech rush, a strategic failure in the ukraine, secure future. he was speaking to the russians and the ukrainians. we don't know how many russians could could hear this speech because of course the internet is blocked and the media is painted a with as propaganda machines. but he's definitely hoping that president put in got got a feed of this because as you noted that zing or that you played earlier, that it used to be thought that the russian military was the 2nd strongest in the world. and now it's only the 2nd strongest in ukraine that will be well appreciated in ukraine. i got big laugh in the room. and you know,

he's hoping that that's well heard in the kremlin. but then he was also speaking to europeans. he reminded how much diplomacy the united states and done coming back to europe, back to nato time and time again laying out the intelligence that they had. that is believing that russia was going to invade and, and that's to keep the europeans on their side. because, of course, there are, there's some flagging enthusiasm for the war here in europe. but then he was talking to the doubters and that there was a lot of the world that, that still doesn't full, full, hardly support ukraine. he pointed out that only 2 thirds of the un had voted in support of these uh, these measures are condemning russia. so there's a 3rd of a 3rd of the world there that still needs to be convinced that this is a, a war that needs to be thoughts, as i mentioned earlier in the program. but did there have been numerous apiece plans or, or p submissions on all, for from china, south africa, the vatican. and you know, with all of these, you can say nice try but no cigar we,

we haven't gotten anything close to piece. but with that in mind, why didn't you think then that answer the blinking, it seems so worried in this speech. well, i think that goes back to that to the last thing. i said that there's still a large part of the world that is not yet in support of, of helping ukraine. that isn't condemning russia some very big countries, like china, a lot of countries in africa believe that it's ukraine blocking green instead of russia. and so he, i think that he's concerned that, that you may not get those countries on the side of ukraine. and then of course, they may be pushing ukraine. also pushing the, those countries arming ukraine to accept, accept some deal that, that really wouldn't bring peace to ukraine. i mean those, those piece bills have to include a lot of a lot of things that the draft that we've seen haven't. and one of those is getting crimea back to ukraine. you cannot to think that it's going to be peace for ukraine with, with the territory occupied by russia on ukrainian territory. so i think that's the

blinking is worried that the world will see the united states and the european allies as continuing this war. why when you've got peace deals, you know, potentially on the table. so i think he was speaking to that. yeah, that's right. the optics are important even when you know that the optics makes the misleading. dw terry schultz tonight from brussels. terry, as always, thank the ukrainian forces, are preparing that long awaited a counter offensive to retake cities in the east of the country from the russians. not to do this, troops will almost certainly have to fight street by street and house by house urban warfare imposes some of the greatest risk to soldiers. t w's marks sondra has this report. this is one of the most dangerous moments in urban warfare. one wrong move here could be your last

one goes inside and then the next the soldiers are fresh from the front line where they faced, chilling and trenches. instead of resting, they prepare for what maybe next. that was left the school will have to go into doing yes. can the console will have to storm every building and there will be collaborators saboteurs, regular troops, private military groups will have to drive them out of houses, not from feels. the thing is probably that's why they're in this abandoned hotel. ukrainian troops may only have one chance to take back their towns from the russians. they can't afford to stay private and as a whole, but it's very important for us to take the right approach. maybe if we don't do and we break right to them and then i'm sorry, we don't have enough people to take risks every day, except that they're ready to leave hundreds behind near one house and know what's

going on with we are not ready to leave a single one, know when you're at the, when you're starting to the soldiers spend 4 to 5 hours training every day, tactics, shooting, and 1st aid. they know their lives may depend on it. so much. we tightened the turn again as tightly as possible, so that not only a finger, not even a feather can fit in between. of course he will scream all kinds of things that it hurts. let me go. but you absolutely can't loosen it. most of them will have experienced this already to himself was permanent, be taken out of the fight when he was injured in battle last year. his best friend died next to him through teaching, from his experience. he's trying to help these men survive.

this is what they want to avoid. the training officials don't say how many soldiers dying for told the number of military graves here at this hockey cemetery has doubled over the last 3 months. some of the men and women varied here were as young as 20 now this cemetery is already the final resting place for hundreds of ukrainian soldiers from the area. and people here believe that fighting at the front will intensify. so now no matter how that will turn out for ukraine, this will mean more funerals and more graves for soldiers here in this ground. that means more families who will turn to freeze to big promoting. chuck knew many of those he's buried here. the most of the

piece of i meant i cannot comfort anyone to the other side because the loss remains with us a lot. yes, there is a great and, and there is a coffin here as luca because there's separation and till the end of our days when there's nothing to this doing it. but we should know who believes what they did and are doing now. pulling this is full of deep meanings to me is to move on because they repeat the save years, feet border as a prevent tomorrow to allow you to secure their own desk. so may of another family says goodbye on 3 legs on the ridge died more than 2 months ago in an eastern forest. today, he's finally buried with love, with military honors. he won't be the last for ukraine and

ukrainians. there doesn't seem to be an alternative. and then put the put them we need victory. where to put the, we don't need peace. even if there is no victory, then there will be no reason why he moved. there will be slavery. defenders fear that more than death itself. and so they prepare for more sacrifice the well my next guest is one of the authorities and what we're looking at tonight urban warfare, t is the co author of the book understanding urban warfare. and he was a founding director of the modern war institute at west point. work is liam collins is a retired special forces colonel, who served in the us army for nearly 30 years with deployments, including iraq, afghanistan, and bosnia. colonel, it's good to have you with this this friday on the day. i want to talk about urban

warfare and it seems to be at the heart of the finding in ukraine. that's what we're hearing. why do city, why did they play such a central role in vladimir pollutants for i mean, 1st of all, their political centers, right. i mean the, on the initial invasion, his primary objective to us to go to key and take out the once we receive and install a russian bailable regime and, and, and politics the, the governing bodies there in cities. that's where people are. and so they become strategic targets for food and for anybody else in boerger we saw in our report there one aspect of urban warfare, this slow, intense, a particularly dangerous form of finding room to room building to building is that the, the central task of finding in an urban setting, i mean it almost, it, it, it makes you have these memories or images of folio just, but are we talking about that when we're talking about the war in eastern ukraine?

yeah, without a doubt it could, it could be like that. i mean, some, some, some battles you might go to the center of the, you know, do a thunder run to the city as we did in baghdad or in 2003, and then try to have the enemy come to you. but more often than not, it's kind of that city, you know, block by block building by building it is, it's very complex and very dangerous. i mean, the 3 d nature of the train, the enemy could be hiding almost anywhere others, almost in most places for them to high and ready, made defense is that offer uncover concealment. and so it is challenging to route them out and it takes very well trained to discipline soldiers to do that effectively. let's talk about where things were little bit more than a year ago. perhaps the most important urban battle that we've seen so far in this war, and that was ukraine's successful defense of the capital key. it was a game changer in the 1st part of this war. why didn't keep, what did they get right. and what did the russians get wrong?

yeah, me so what, what they got right, was they, they established with, with very few number of horses. they only had really one per day there cuz they thought the fighting was going to be on the east. but really what they wanted to defend the city at the city limits don't let the fight get into the heart of the city where they're gonna, you know, suffer massive collateral damage to, to the key city. and so they weren't becky been doing that by flooding the river's right, destroying many bridges, the way it was forced the russians on just a limited number of routes into the city. and so the much larger than rushing force, right at that point of attack, the ukrainians that were much smaller could achieve local superiority, and then just engage them in kill zones, right? engaged up the front and trail vehicle, russian con boy with anti honor weapons. and then just destroyed the west with artillery because they were trapped the nearest city streets and couldn't go away. and so the renters did that very effectively to keep, keep the russians out of the city. when we were talking about these 2 different militaries, the ukranian forces, russian forces, do they have fundamentally different approaches into urban warfare?

i mean, do we know, i mean, without a doubt, i mean, as, as the russians have demonstrated throughout this works, you're poorly trained. they're poorly led, they don't have the ability at the lower level, they have individual initiative. and so what we see when the attacks it eases, they the only option they have is to use brute force. and so really larger killer barrages. and then just infantry going in there and it's very expensive. it shows up weapon system. it destroys the, the, the, the, the cities. and really, it just kills a lot of effort to try to make those advances. and what we've learned throughout the history of organ work, we are going back to war 2 or even earlier in the end as well as in, in, in the rack is to be effective at taking city. and in clearing an urban area requires combined arms, it takes me armor and infantry working together, engineers clearing obstacles and, and artillery in support of that. and the brains are much better at doing that because you are a well trained force, a well lead force. it has good doctrine, it's really been much better and exercise and that combine, obviously,

requirements, city and the russians just can't let me ask you to before we've been on the time you know, the counter offensive that the world has been waiting for. we, we were told that it would be a spring counter offensive now, you know, we're, we're almost in just summer, the ukrainian military. they, they have a lot of weapons that they didn't have 6 months ago. the training has been taking place. what's your prognosis for it for their performance moving forward once this counter offensive? is full blown? yeah, i think it's going to be challenging. um, i don't think we're gonna see the massive territory or liberation that they did with the fall counter offensive, if only because it's going to be harder cuz rushes more densely, a as their, their, their troops, they're more to be more densely packed. so it's hard for them to read about where versus when they were much more sparsely. so it's going to be a challenge for it for, for the ukrainians. but they're going to have some success for sure, because russians troops haven't trained,

they just gotten the worst forces that are in there, less train, less capable conscripts. and so it's it's, it's going to play out, but that should be with the ukrainians. liam collins, co author of understanding urban warfare and retired colonel. we appreciate you taking the time to talk with us on this friday. thank you. thank you or the international law is clear about what the world has to do with more criminals. that is the view of germany's for administer. annalynne and fair bulky. you see behind the hear her remarks, they come after debate about south africa's invitation to russian president vladimir putin. to attend a bricks summit in johannesburg. is coming august. take your list on as it optic south africa has already made clear that it's a member of the international criminal course. and this has rushed to find the room stop 260 a time. not makes very clear once more that this russian war of aggression is not

just purely a european affair, but that's as effects the entire world. they that stuffed the circuit based design international law is clear on that point. international law makes clear the war criminals, those responsible for wars of aggression. wouldn't they be held responsible? unfortunately, it's all right. let's take a big story. my next guest is angela with a code to a symbolic way and human rights lawyer specializing an international criminal law. she's worked at the international criminal court. it is good to have you with this . this is a story that is rather explosive. if. well, let me put, if he takes up the, the invitation to attend the break summit in august, south africa. well then have to decide what to do. what do you think? so when a half that's a very good question and your guess is as good as mine because what the law says they should do is that they should have risk present value of food and should he arrive in south africa? but we know from 2015 when former president bush year wasn't south africa,

there was an attempt to have him arrested, which is the case i was on with the organization i was with at the time. and the law was here in that case. and you, in south africa, have failed to risk for the no mob a share. so the president, which unfortunately doesn't set a very satisfied picture as far as justice and accountability is concerned. but my hope is that this time they will learn from their mistakes and that they will act in accordance with the rule of law. well, you know, what is your information? i think our viewers are going to find is very interesting if there's already a president that south africa can build upon that speaks for vladimir putin to enjoy full immunity when he goes to the south africa doesn't well, i don't know if it's fixed for him, enjoying full immunity and speaks for south africa failing to uphold the root of law and fulfilled his duty, which is to arrest him. should you arrive in south africa? so the question whether you actually have an issue or not from where i stand and based on the president from the machine case. because remember, this case went to the supreme court of appeal in south africa, where they ruled that south africa had to gigi to arrest them. and the

international criminal court has said a similar thing in the past with regard to the states and immunity. so there should be no immunity, he should be arrested. so this was a question to solve after doing the right thing and doesn't that, and it wouldn't, doesn't have immunity in this instance. so assuming south africa is not going to do the right thing. what does this mean for the legitimacy of the international criminal court? think of what was facing. here's the situation that could damage. but it just means you have international criminal court because the court has already been criticized for being inefficient for taking too long with his cases for only going off to a certain group and issuing arrest warrants that are never executed is not good for the court. and it speaks to the entire system. the international criminal justice system which relies on state corporation. the i, c. c has no police. the police force of its own. it relies on states to fulfill the arrest warrants. and when states and operating the court cannot get people in the

dock. and so the whole system i think is in jeopardy yet if they're arrest ones that are not fulfilled, i think it's very dangerous. and i think it also stands and unfortunate message, the victims of genocide, what kinds of crimes against humanity, the method should be that nobody's about the law. and that's what the court is designed to do. but without states population, it's very difficult in any this is a message that we would think would be a no brainer for, for, for south africa. considering its history that mean this would be an opportunity. you could see it as an opportunity for south africa to take a stand for human rights, the rule of law, it carries the flag for all of the african particular, but we're talking about the bricks group for example. but that's, that's not going to happen is i hope it will, i hope it will, but it's very difficult to stay at this point because we're getting conflicting messages from different parts of government in south africa. the latest is that the have, there's an opportunity for, but i mean putting to participate, remote fee. there's been talked about moving assignment to china. there's been talk about not arresting who should be arrives. so there's just conflicting messages

from the authorities. and so it's very difficult to predict what will happen. but as i said, i hope lessons learned from 2015 when president bashir was there. and that how that for going off not to hospice summit, which wouldn't be unusual. by the way, there's president this, in other instances, all of that should that have wouldn't arrive, that they will arrest them. yeah, i mean, it is definitely going to be one of those events that the whole world is going to be watching south africa to see what it does. that is for sure. angela. go to go to somebody in human rights lawyer. we appreciate you taking the time to talk with us on this friday. thank you. thank you for having me as well. the day is almost done . the conversation is continues online. you'll find this on twitter either at the w news. you can follow me on twitter at brent golf tv. and remember whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day, have a good weekend everybody. the

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