germany u-turns on sending heavy weapons to ukraine, berlin says it will deliver antiaircraft systems to the ukrainian military to help with the fight against the russian invasion. also's america defense secretary hosts military leaders, declaring that they are moving

heaven and earth to help kyiv. you and a secretary general held -- the u.n. secretary general says he is open to helping evacuate citizens from mariupol. the head of the atomic energy watchdog describes russia's occupation of the chernobyl nuclear site as very dangerous. welcome to the program. germany says it will send a heavy antiaircraft weapon systems to ukraine to help fight off russia's invasion. if all those weeks of criticism from ukraine -- it follows weeks of criticism from ukraine. military leaders are in the

airbase. >> the u.s. airbase in germany, where the united states and allies pledged packages of weapons for ukraine. that was hosted by lloyd austin. >> we do not have any time to waste. the briefings laid out why the coming weeks will be so crucial for ukraine. we have got to move at the speed of war. i know that all of the leaders leave today more resolved than ever to support ukraine in its fight against russian aggression. >> the day kicked off with a surprise, germany, which had been criticized for refusing to send weapons do ukraine announced it would send antiaircraft systems. >> we have made the decision it is important to support

antiaircraft defense. that can be done with this and it is on the list of what ukraine needs, we are now making it possible. we will continue doing this. >> not everyone welcomed the decision. >> i find it problematic, germany does not have enough military equipment for itself. >> i think it is important, what the german government doing -- is doing is good. i am not sure if offering weapons is going to stop the war. >> i did not like the degree of how -- the degree of hesitancy. >> in closing remarks, the gathering and the u.s. and allies will not be the last. once a month they will discuss

ukraine's defense needs. >> welcome, what is behind this german u-turn? >> an internal struggle within the governing coalition which lasted for weeks and saw the social democrats not wanting to deliver the heavy weapons to ukraine while the free democrats and the greens had already been calling for exactly that. they all said that they are on the same page but they were not. we see what is a second small turnaround. in eternally -- internally, this is seen as an paradigm shift. it crosses what was seen as a redline in germany. externally, when you look at the eastern partners, it is germany being in sync with the rest of the western allies.

>> what pushed them over the edge? >> the internal pressure, the democrats and the greens wanted to see their chancellor not just strike a different tone but choked with action and at the same time we are seeing the external pressure. the americans calling this meeting, if you wanted to be part of the west, this was the moment to change direction. >> as you heard in the report, this is a regular event? >> there is a profound message in this, we have had debates in the past, what was the west? >> it is nato. >> it was not nato countries, it is a much broader set of countries, it is the west, it is a liberal democracies, standing up for ukraine.

they want to stay out of this, being a defensive union. here, these other willing estates, states willing to stand up for ukraine, making this monthly, manifesting this for the potential years. >> how damaging has the perceived foot dragging been? >> he started off pretty fast, three days after ukraine was invaded by russia, it was the truman chancellor who -- german chancellor who declared a new era. he was not willing to go down the avenue of heavy weapons. germany is doing exactly what it vowed not to do. once again in this mounting conflict, it does raise questions over who really leads in europe, who is the true leader? at the same time it is doing

quite a bit of damage to the trust that eastern states and countries have in the germans. >> thank you for that. what sort of difference will this make do ukrainian forces? i asked our former brigadier general in the austrian army. he is part of the center for strategic analysis. >> i do not expect a immediate effect on the final ground. in the longer term, think about the strong impact on the capacities of the ukrainian armed forces because they danger from it is coming from attack helicopters is intensive. having some weapons against it will make a change. >> the clamor for air defenses

from nato countries seems to have called down now, have they given up on that because nato has said no to it? >> now, it is of the highest importance for the survival of their tank forces frothe ukrainian side because the danger of the air is so high. it is important. >> how well-equipped is ukraine's army two months into this war? >> i think it is a question nobody can answe exactly. what we see is the effect on the ground. the ukrainian forces are trying to stop russian assaults and they are still able to maneuver

in a certain area. there is in a huge advantage of the advantage because of the antitank weapons in the air. that makes a difference because they are able to defend at a higher level and they are not running out of ammunition. >> this is a battle that seems to have exposed russia as something of a phantom superpower. the expectation was they would obliterate ukraine and clearly, we presume, there are many more russian forces in reserve. what is going on here? is russia choosing not to throw everything at this conflict or is russia actually doing that and coming not out as well as we would have expected? >> russia is throwing a lot of

troops that they have available towards ukraine. it is not the size, it is the capacity on the ground to act and act in a coordinated way. people say that the fourth and the strength ofhe russian forces was overestimated. i agree to a certain extent. >> of the russian foreign minister said he had complained about the west trying to reestablish alternative organization to the u.n.. now the united states is convening a meeting to coordinate weapon supplies and strategy, he seems to have a point, does not take? -- doesn't he? >> from the moment that they neglected to call it a war, they

called it a military operation, the focus was on the donbass, and taking kyiv, the capital. according to the situation on the ground. >> good talking to you. thank you for talking with us. >> thank you. >> 80 ukraine, volunteers are working to evacuate thousands -- in ukraine volunteers working to evacuate thousands, many are without electricity, gas. , or water. >> this man is being evacuated from his home. trapped in his flat, it is a miracle that he survived. >> they have been been parting. all day and all night. -- bombarding us all day and all

night. the bombing only haened during the day. they began bombing at night too. bombs hit here in the yard. >>kharkiv has withstood bombing, most. of the city is ashes. 50 residents have been evacuated. they have been taken to shelters where they hope to be safe. about 400 km south, safety is a distant dream. russian forces continue to pummel the steel factory, the last pocket of resistance in mariupol. it has been under siege, most of it has been rushed -- destroyed

by russian bombardments. protecting them, ukraine's president has asked allies for more support. >> everyone in the world, even those who do not support us agree that the fate of europe and global security and the te the democratic system is being decided in ukraine. >> it seems like it is calls for greater diplomatic efforts are being heard. dozens of nations willing to support ukraine in a war that is simply -- that it can went on it own. >> repeating the call for a cease-fire, he had a principal to evacuate civilians from the besieged city of mariupol. vladimir putin says he has hopes

of a diplomatic end. there was a frank discussion with the russian foreign minister. >> russia's foreign minister welcomed a special guest to moscow on wednesday. secretary general antonio guterres. he came as a messenger of peace but he was unsuccessful after their meeting, lavrov accused the west of using ukraine to harm russia. >> we either resign ourselves to having a single country and its satellites control all of humanity or humanity lives together on the basis of the united nations. nobody wants a war, heaven forbid. >> there is one thing that is true and obvious. that is no arguments can change. we have not ukrainian troops in

the territory of the russian federation. we have russian troops in the territory of the ukrainian federation. >> a long-awaited talks with president putin, referring to the invasion of ukraine as a war , a terminology that is banned in russia. >> covering this meeting, he is based in riega because dw is banned in russia. what are we hearing from the meeting? >> there was a press conference between vladimir putin and antonio guterres. lavrov left earlier, a taste of the meeting with vladimir putin. he only transmits putin's will. they both spoke to each other,

especially considering that there was condemnation of the war in ukraine and blamed it on putin. only time will tell if the meeting brought anything, looking back to a similar event, the surprise visit of a secretary general to put in in 2014 after the annexation of crimea. he spoke of constructive talks, and it did not do anything at all. >> as you have hinted, the same line coming out of both meetings? >> at least one diplomatic goal has been achieved, he was heard. i want to point to the fact that he spoke out about the war during the press conference.

no person in russia is allowed to say that, russia is conceding at least partially by setting up a joint contact group for the population, this could be interpreted as a positive sign because it offers the russians a kind of exit strategy from their failures in ukraine. russian state propaganda may see this as a offer of goodwill but it does not stop the it leads to the saving of human lives. that is what was wanting to be achieved. >> gazprom is holding the supplies to poland. what do we make to that? >> they are going to suspend the

supplies to. poland from. april 27 polish companies received a letter about the suspension of supplies, poland refused to pay for russian gas supplies with mandatory conversion into rubles. they force not only poland but all western countries to pay for gas in rubles. as far as we know, germany was able to agree on payment in euros as stipulated in the contract. as for poland, this was a break of contract and no matter how it developed it was a clear threat to other western countries. >> that is yuri speaking to me earlier. bulgaria's energy ministry says that gas delivery will cease on wednesday.

the nuclear watchdog has visited chernobyl on the anniversary of the nuclear disaster. the chief said that russia's occupation. had been dangerous. radiation levels went up but are now back to normal. >> sealed under giant concrete hood. the chernobyl disaster site is the focus of attention, troops are withdrawn, the head of the international atomic and authority assess the condition. >> it must go to the operators, to these people here because they carried on their work in spite of all of the difficulties, the stress, the fact they could not be working normally. they continued working as if nothing had happened. they kept the situation stable

so to speak. the worst was avoided. >> the first task is replacing equipment that was destroyed or stolen. >> they were not admitted to the critical part of the strucre but they left a lot of chaos and they stole equipment from us, computers, it is unreal. >> 36 years ago this nuclear block exploded and it was the worst nuclear accident in human history. 36 years later, the war has brought back the nuclear threat. >> the russians took over the site on the first day of the war. putting the cooling system at risk and ukraine says the russian dug trenches in highly

contaminated forests and using radiation from contaminated soil. >> on the edges of the forest we did not go in deep, we found a levels of radiation 50 times higher than the norm. discarded food packaging suggests the soldiers spent time there, becoming contaminated in the process. rescue workers remain in the town of chernobyl hoping that they russian forces would understand the danger -- the russian forces would understand the danger. >> some understood where they were and some did not. there were so many of them, the first group arrived and then a third and so on. some behave reasonably, others less so. i could not tell what was going on in bulkheads.

>> is about securing the site for the future. >> our correspondent in chernobyl joins us from the ukrainian capital of kyiv. what is the situation in chernobyl like now? >> the russian troops have ended the zone, this contaminated zone, but is not open to the public usually -- it is not open to the public usually. they stayed there for almost six weeks and in that time, we wait -- we have been hearing that they vandalized many facilities. that is mostly civilian facilities, homes, etc.. they have not entered the the plant.

they have done a lot of damage by digging these trenches. the radiation is unequally distributed in this zone. places we went to day you can walk around where you will not get a lot of radiation and then there are places that are highly contaminated and there is a one particular forest that is known for being the highest, the most contaminated place in this zone and that is where they dock the trenches. -- dug the trenches. the soil where the radiation was stored, the radiation is higher than it was before in this zone. >> russian forces also occupied another power plant. how big was the risk there? >> the plant is under russian

control. the team that operates this plant is still on duty, they are still working and the ukrainians are confident that they havee everything under control. there is a constant threat, military equipment has been stationed there. antiaircraft installations. there is always the risk this may be drawn back into war. it was hit by a shell when they entered the facility. of course, this is one of the biggest ways to the ukrainian government. >> thank you for that. ukraine has accused russia of trying to fuel unrest in the separatist region of moldova.

violence has flared in the area over the last two days, fueling fears of that conflict could spill over. >> two radio towers now scrap metal, the blast site in it is 5 km from the ukrainian order. no one has claimed responsibility. >> our analysis shows their attentions between various forces. interested in destabilizing the region. this is a complex and tense situation, we remain vigilant and will take all necessary measures to present escalation, to strengthen security, and protect our citizens. we must remain calm, stay in

verified sources and avoid distributing false information. the expsion of the radio towers is the second unclaimed attack. the first was on the state security ministry. tensions in the region have been high since russia invaded ukraine. moscow has suggested it created a land corridor along the southern ukraine between the russian control territories in eastern ukraine. it is believed russia keeps around 1500 troops there and analysts say the area could be used to launch an attack on ukraine. it remained pro-russian after the fall of the soviet union but it is considered part of moldova. authorities have raised the terror alert to the highest level, they are worried the war in you and could spill across the border and then to the rest of the country. >> our top stories at this hour,

germany says it will deliver antiaircraft systems to ukraine. the major policy shift follows intense criticism that berlin is taking too long to send ukraine a weapons. lloyd austin has received international support and announced that the u.s. and allies will coordinate military kyiv support to. he was speaking after posting the first of these leaders at the airbase in germany. world news at the top of the hour. the big stories of the day in, the day. ♪

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you're watching live from paris right here on "france 24." the headlines this hour. a meeting to galvanize the world against russia's invasion of ukraine represented 40 countries led by the u.s. at rims time airbase in germany. could the conflict spillover to neighboring moldova? explosions rocked the area in ukraine accuses russia of destabilization. and u.n. secta