berlin. the battle for ukraine's donbass region rages on. russian forces control up to 80% of the key city. the human cost of the battle is terrifying, and ukraine is pleading for more weapons to push back the russian. also coming up, scrambling to secure earth's gas supply.

and mired in controversy. the u.k. presses ahead with controversial plans to deport asylum-seekers to rwanda. the government insists the first flight will take off today despite condemnation from rights groups and church leaders who call it it moral. -- call it a moral -- call it immoral. we open our coverage with the battle for ukraine's eastern donbass region, which rages on in russia -- and russia is tightening its grip. russian forces control up to 80% of the city and are urging ukrainian forces to surrender. ukraine's president says ukraine

is outgunned in one of the bloodiest battles of the war and has pleaded with western allies to send more long-range weapons. >> bridges destroyed. the city is now almost cut off. authorities say they are still able to evacuate the wounded, but the situation for those still left is worsening and asked. street battles are raging in the eastern city. the government of the region says is it's mostly under russian control. authorities believe more than 500 civilians, including children, are sheltering at a chemical plant. they say the plant is under heavy bombardment from russian forces. moscow and pro-russian separatists in the region have issued an ultimatum to ukrainian troops still holding out in the city. >> the ukrainian military unit that are stationed there remain there forever. they have two options, either

follow the example of their colleagues and surrender or die. they have no other option. >> but the ukrainian president remains defiant. >> we are dealing with absolute evil, and we have no other choice but to move forward, free our entire territory, kick the occupiers out of all our region. you can feel that the strategic initiative is still on our side. >> in a nearby town, ukrainian police race to bring civilians to safety. many of them elderly. they did not want to leave their homes. now they have no choice but to go. >> meanwhile, russian voices -- russian fors announced they will establish a humanitarian court or to evacuate civilians.

>> indeed, it was an announcement made earlier today by the russian minister of defense, that they were ready to evacuate the civilians who are trapped in that chemical plant, but as we have just heard in the report, there were also the separatists who were saying that ukrainian soldiers only have the choice to surrender or to die. this might remind you of a situation we know very well, sadly, now that of mary a there were ukrainian forces trapped with civilians in a steel plant in mariupol, and we are in that situation where civilians direly need to be evacuated, but under which conditions? well that depend on soviet surrender? this is not quite clear yet.

what we know is the city is completely cut off from the rest of ukrainian forces. three bridges of the city have been destroyed and up to 80% of the city is now under russian control. >> indeed. the ukrainian president described the situation as very dire and is again urging allies to send more heavy weapons and ammunition. what exactly do we know about the state of the ukrainian forces? >> what we know is rather what ukrainian forces do not have to fight, and that is heavy weapons. president zelenskyy really criticized western allies for being too restrained in their decision-making in what is a matter of diplomacy for western power is a matter of life and death ukrainians here on the ground who are paying the price of blood. we have some figures for the

ministry of defense here in ukraine, up to 100 soldiers dying, ukrainian soldiers dying every day since the beginning o the war, and we even had the presidential adviser who gave a list of things that were needed by the ukraine army, quite straightforward list that was published on twitter with 500 tanks, 2000 armored vehicles, 1000 drones, just to give you an idea as to how desperate ukraine is now to receive the weapons promised by the west. >> thank you. the united nations says more than 7 million people have left ukraine since the war began. 100,000 have found refuge in bulgaria. many have in staying in hotels on the black sea coast. now they are having to make way for summer visitors.

>> time to get moving again. everyone here fled from ukraine months ago. now they are being relocated from bulgaria schools to state facilities across the country. how long they will state is unclear. >> it is very hard with two children. there's nowhere i can just leave them. they are on the move with me. >> up until june, about 60,000 refugees were staying in these hotels along the hungarian black sea, but before the summer season, hung reduced the compensation to hotel workers -- hung area -- hungaria reduced to the compensation to hotel workers. >> it is clear this is our business, tourism. there was no way they could stay on during the summer season.

>> due to a lack of seasonal workers, he decided to keep some ukrainian refugees on. before the war, they managed a flower business in kharkiv. now they are getting trained how to set a lunch table. >> it is difficult to plan at all. we don't know what will happen tomorrow. >> they fled with their children. their husbands in ukraine could be drafted at any time, they say. >> it is hard for us to process everything because we are full of sorrow for our country. >> bulgaria is in dire need of tourists. russian tourists were one of the biggest groups of foreign visitors but are staying away due to sanctions. it is unclear how many will come, but some are happy that the refugees are now being

accommodated elsewhere. >> i think we helped enough. it is not necessary to help them anymore. >> the issue of ukrainian refugees is increasingly polarizing bulgarian society. there is still a lot of solidarity. in the capital, this demonstration is a call for help. these people say the war against ukraine is unjustified, yet polls show about 1/3 of bulgarians still maintain a positive attitude towards putin. one man says the longer pressure's war against ukraine continues, the harder it will be to maintain solidarity with ukraine. >> the louder the pro-russian voices get, the worst ukrainian refugees will fear here in bulgaria. >> they know little about the ongoing debate about their status. they try to provide moments of

joy to their children. on the others out of the sea, ukraine, where the war edges on. >> the german government says it is placing the former german subsidiary of russian energy giant gazprom into long-term administration. the move is aimed at securing europe's energy supply amid ongoing sanctions. gazprom was already tak into administration earlier this year. now it will provide a 10 billion euro loan to the company to prevent it from going bankrupt. it has also changed its name. the company runs critical energy infrastructure in germany. russia's gazprom severed ties to the firm after germany slapped ties -- slap sanctions following its invasion. our correspondent explain why the german government is taking long-term control of the company. >> the keyword you mentioned is

long-term. germany had already in the beginning of april basically announced short-term control of gas from -- of gazprom. it had previously belonged to the russian group, but in april, germany decided to put it into its own hands, at least for the short term. what is happening now is that that control will be maintained long-term. the reason behind this is essentially because germany considers gazprom to play a very important role in the country. for example, german government officials stressing that gazprom essentially operates critical infrastructure here in the country, so this decision is on the one hand to maintain that long-term control but also to ensure supply here in germany, a key goal the german government has had since the beginning of the war in ukraine.

>> coincidentally, but in a separate development, the former russian owner of gazprom has announced it is reducing natural gas deliveries to germany. are germany and the eu now facing the possibility of shortages? >> germany in particular is following closely these developments. german officials did stress that supply here in the country is guaranteed. there was a rather short statement by germany's economy ministry, but they are obviously following development closely to try to understand if this reduction in supply is a temporary measure or something more long-term, what the exact reasoning is behind it and how germany can essentially prepare for the consequences. for now, what we have heard from german officials is that supply is guaranteed and that they are monitoring the situation very carefully. >> thank you.

thousands of trucks filled with ukrainian grain are struggling to find new routes for exports. many remain stranded like he's on the side of the road in odessa. shipping out from odessa's ports has become impossible. russia has blocked shipping routes and ukraine has laid mines and airport cities to prevent russia from advancing by sea, though much of the world relies on grain from ukraine to feed their own population and in countries like lebanon, supplies of wheat are becoming worryingly low. >> cues for bread start early, like at this bakery in the southern part of lebanon's capital, beirut. baker mohammed has hardly anything left to sell. bread is becoming scarce. the bakers are running out of flour. >> we used almost all the flower

we had today for baking, so after two hours, the's no more bread, not here nor in the other branches. there's no bread in the supermarket, either. >> there was a shortage of flour. supplies are also running low at wholesalers. previously, around 25 tons were sold every day here, but now this wholesaler can only deliver up to one time each day, and supplies will soon run out. a large part of lebanon's wheat came from ukraine and russia, as did sunflower o. now new supplies are urgently needed. the government has to secure loans and find alternatives to ukrainian wheat. and we need storage. another problem is that we lost our wheat silos in the explosion that happened in the port of beirut. there is no longer a place to store week. >> -- to store wheat. >> the devastating explosion almost two years ago not only

destroyed the wheat silos but people's confidence. the country is experiencing an economic crisis. the currency is in freefall. food prices have risen by more than 600%. bread prices have also multiplied. the world bank has promised lebanon and million dollar loan for wheat, but the money has not arrived yet. >> we have a very serious concern that if the russia-ukraine crisis continues to grow and we import about 80% of our wheat from russia and ukraine, we don't have any national reserves. >> the last bread of the day is coming out of the ovens, overseen by the baker mohammed. he does not know if he will have lower again tomorrow, even though russiaas supposedly promised to release wheat deliveries. there is still no sign of them in lebanon. >> we demand a solutiofor this country. we are.

people are emigrating because it is no longer possible to live here. there is no longer even bread. the people of lebanon fear that very soon there will simply be no more bread. >> now to the other stories in the headlines this hour. allies of jailed russian opposition leader alexei navalny say he have been transferred to an undisclosed location and they don't know where he is. mr. navalny, seen here in file footage, is serving an 11-year sentence for charges widely seen as politically motivated. his supporters have voiced concern for his safety. record flooding has forced yellowstone national park in the u.s. to close. one house on the yellowstone river was swept away by the torrents. tourists have been stranded by

communities in montana and wyoming, cut off after the floods knocked out roads and bridges. dozens of members of a former opposition party in cambodia have been convicted of treason. it is the latest in a number of mass trials that have targeted the cambodian national rescue party. critics say the southeast asian country has been reduced to a one-party state. the democratic republic of congo's military has accused neighboring rwanda of launching an invasion after a rebel group captured a key border town. congo says rwanda supports the rebel fighters. thousands have fled riding in the area in recent months. congo is bowing to defend its territory, marking a dramatic escalation in tensions between the two countries -- congo is bowing -- congo is vowing to

defend its territory. a convoy thought to be carried people due to be deported has arrived at a military airport. the flight is set to take them to the rwandan capital, kigali, almost 7000 kilometers away. asylum seekers already living there paint a bleak picture of what awaits new arrivals. dw's london correspondent told me earlier there is strong opposition to this policy, but one group of voters supports it. >> it is interesting. a recent opinion poll has found a lot of the conservative versus a majority have supported this policy, but there has been a lot

of outrage and debate publicly. protesters have been trying to stop the convoys. church leaders, that was mentioned in the report, they have come together and said that this is an immoral practice that shames britain. celebrities were trying to urge the airlines not to participate in this, and the petition -- you know, if you watch it online, every minute, somebody else is signing it, also urging the government to stop it. over 160,000 signatures so far, so there is a lot of debate, and what unites most people that are publicly very loud about it is they say this is just a policy that is morally wrong. >> how was the government defending its policy? >> the government has really been put on the spot a lot

publicly in the last days. we have heard the foreign secretary saying that it is not the policy that is immoral but actually the people smugglers, those people who help other people across the channel in boats, and that costs lives, and she says this is necessary as a deterrent because britain wants to be seen as a country that is not welcoming to too many people, but they want to create a kind of hostile environment, at least towards what they call illegal migrants. now people that are crossing the channel are people that usually have family ties to britain that they want to come to the u.k., but they are hoping basically to make it very unattractive, the u.k., as a country because people who are coming in this way, who are crossing via the

channel, they are now facing the possibility of being deported to rwanda. >> why rwanda? >> the british government has an agreement with rwanda, and rwanda has agreed to do this. obviously, they are receiving money for it, and a spokeswoman for the rwandan government has said that rwanda wants to show that african countries can also be part of the solution and that they are presenting a safe and welcoming environment for asum-seekers. however,he -- the human rights watch, the human rigs ngo, has criticized that saying that, for example, critics of the government and journalists are being thrown in jail and being silenced and that the rwandan government needs to look into

the treatment and abuse of these political prisoners, so it is a controversial choice to bring people to rwanda. >> many thanks. greatly appreciated. asylum-seekers already living there paint a bleak picture of what awaits the new arrivals. >> a transit center in rwanda. these refugees tried treach europe but did not succeed. many of them ended up spending years in attention centers in libya before being relocated here. eight years ago, peter fled south sudan amid the country's civil war. he was moved here last year by the united nations refugee agency but does not want to stay. rwanda is one of the least developed countries in the world. peter hopes for a better future

elsewhere. he feels bad for the migrants sent to rwanda under the recent deal because they must apply for asylum here. >> the u.k. government must understand thatuman beings are man. you cannot tell them go and stay here or gand do this because if they feel better in u.k., u.k. is better for them. >> but that u.k. government disagrees. it insists the policies needed to stop a flood of all too often deadly migrant crossings off the channel from france. >> it is very important we show that people trafficking does not work and we are able to reduce the costs over time of immigration into the united kingdom. >> the united nations high commissioner for refugees has called the plans catastrophic. >> this is all wrong, this deal.

for so many different reasons. the precedent that this creates is catastrophic for a concept that needs to be shared like asylum. >> this hostile in rwanda's capital is expected to house the first migrants sent under the u.k. agreement. it's general manager says it is not a prison despite tight security measures, and opinion that may not be shared by some of the new arrivals. >> spain is dealing with the earliest heat wave to hit since the 1980's. a cloud of hot air from north africa has sent temperatures soaring above 40 degrees celsius across large parts of the country. authorities are warning of an extreme risk of wildfires. scientists say climate change is making heat waves more frequent and more intense. >> the last time it got this hot this early in the year in spain was in 1981.

here in madrid in the midday heat, temperatures are soaring, and those who are out are looking for ways to stay cool. some are soaking up the full force of the heatwave, but spain's national weather agency warns conditions could feel even more extreme with sand and dust from the sahara desert being carried north into europe. his spokesperson for the weather agency says heat waves have become five times more frequent in the 21st century. quick the truth is i'm doing fine. i've come here with my friends. the heat is good for you. it provides vitamin d, so i'm happy. >> while some are pleased with the high temperatures, not everyone can escape the sweltering heat. >> it is difficult dealing with the heat in madrid. there's not much shade, and a lot of asphalt here.

it is hard and we don't have air conditioning at home. >> further south in seville, the situation is even worse with temperatures easily breaching 40 degrees celsius. the heat hitting higher and earlier than it has here in more than six decades. meteorologists attribute the high temperatures to a massive cloud of hot air moving through europe from northern africa. forecasters say the heatwave is due to hit france next. >> time for a break. that's the latest news from k pop sensation bts, or is it? ♪ fans of the korean band, nicknamed the army, are confused after statements by members quoted as saying they are going

on a hiatus, but the studio behind the six-member project says it's not true and they will be focusing on solo project. bts made their debut in 2013 and just released their latest album called "proof" last week. >> it is going to be a smashing success, i already predict it. stay with us. after a break, i will be back to take you through "the day." for now, if you want to find out more, head to our website, dw.com. ♪

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>> across the anchor: welcome. emmanuel macron meets french troops that's part of nato's response to bolstering its eastern flank. volodymyr zelenskyy makes an appeal from a heavy weaponry as russian forces wrap up efforts to cut off troops. the united arab emirates joints a list of muslim nations which will not be screening lightyear.