>> this is dw news live from berlin. the european union outlined its latest package of sanctions against russia that include new trade restrictions and a cop on the civil war, as well as targeting officials responsible for brussels described as sham referendums inastern ukraine. al on therogram, russia says it is not to blame for the explosion thought to have caused the damage to gas pipelines in the cultic sea. moscow says it, too, one's

answers, as european leaders say the pipeline was sabotaged. hurrican ian targets the coast of florida with winds reaching 150 miles per hour, forecasting of catastrophic storm surges. ♪ i am phil gayle. welcome to the program. the european union has proposed new, biting sanctions against russia targeting russia's military and the people who organized annexation goatskin parts of eastern ukraine. they said russia must pay a price for excluding the crisis by holding these sham referendums. e.u. commission president ursula von der leyen described the rationale behind such measures. >> would isolate and hit russia's economy even more, so we propose sweeping new import

bans on russian products. this will keep russian products out of the european market and deprive russia of an additional 7 billion euros in revenue. we are also proposing to extend the list of products that cannot exported to russia anymore. phil: i asked our dw for her take on ursula von der leyen's announcement. reporter: that's right. the european commission and ursula von der leyen have been threatening for some time to bring forth this sanctions package against russia, and now, this combination of the sham referenda, putin's mobilization of more people to fight in ukraine, he's repeated nuclear saber-rattling, has all gotten on the nerves of the european commission. so ursula von der leyen says she wants to make the kremlin pay for bringing escalation to a

whole new level. -talk us through these later sanctions and how they will work. as you heard her mention, they want to ban the import of seven euros more of products into the e.u.. they also really want to try and prevent technology from getting to the russian military, which is using it to fight in ukraine. so they are looking at semiconductors and other technology, to keep it away from the russian military. there is also a pretty interesting development for individuals who will be targeted for sanctions that will include, for example, people who helped organize these referenda in the occupied regions of ukraine. if these measures pass, there will be a ban on e.u. citizens sitting on boards of russian companies. in germany, that would bring up the name of gerhard schroeder, who sits on a number of these boards. phil: in this cap on oil prices, how is it going to work?

reporter: it's come to get a question and in the beginning phases of being permitted. a cap on the price that could be paid for russian oil. that has not yet been agreed to by all countries. what von der leyen is proposing in this package is laying the legal framework so that should all e.u. countries agree to this price cap on oil, then the lawyers would already be in place. this is something now that ambassadors will be discussing at the end of this week i spoke. to an official tonight who said that perhaps if all goes well, the entire package might be adopted by the time there is a summit next week. phil gayle thank you, dw correspondent to officials in brussels. the result of referendums held in ukraine have been released. officials say between 87% and 99% of residents voted yes to be annexed by the russian federation. . some separatist leaders have

already formally requested corporation. ukraine's president says he will defend all of his country's territory and force russia out of all areas. >> applause internets because the result of the so-called referendum came in. for the russian authorities, it was a day they had been waiting for, for years. >> we were dreaming about this in 2014. then, we were making history. and that is what this is. today, we live in historic days. we are reuniting with our big motherland. with great russia. reporter: according to officials in the four occupied regions, an overwhelming majority of votes were cast in favor of russian annexation, with a high turnout. but ukrainian's who recently fled those areas tell a very different story. >> the results were nicely drawing up on paper, but in reality, people do not vote. the turnout was not that large.

people are very much opposed to the referendum. no one wants to join russia. no one. but with this pressure, people are scared. >> i saw members of the voting commission filling in ballots themselves while sitting in their cars, i saw it with my own eyes. they did the same in their voting districts. i know my relatives, my friends, no one voted. this is what the referendum is, is this what free will is? walking around with assault rifles and making others sign ballots? reporter: kyiv and its western allies have denounced the referendums as illegal and illegimate. >> this farce in the occupied territories cannot even be called an imitation of

referendum. we will act to protect our ople in the courson region, in the zaporizhzhya region, in donbas, in the currently occupied areas of kharkiv, and in crimea. reporter: the u.s. said it would ask the u.n. security council to condemn the votes with a resolution ordering pressure to withdraw from the ukraine. but with moscow having a veto on the council, there is no chance of the resolution passing. with the sham votes out of the way, now it is up to president putin just how fast he wants to complete the final step in annexing the occupied territories and escalating his seven-month war once again. phil: our guest is a senior investigator at the center for information resilience which works to combat this information. i asked her what people have been told about these so-called referendums, and why they are being held. guest: informationas been confusing since the beginning. the center for information resilience, we have been

investigating for a few months, and these referenda have been called and canceled a few times. the information has been very confusing. . for example in kherson, the referendum had been called for the 11th of october, then it was postponed to the fourth of november, then last week it was called. it shows that the administration have nreal pow in decision-making processes, the decisions come directly from the kremlin. regarding the second part of the question, they're being held to portray annexation and reciprocation of these occupied areas as unavoidable. after the result of this referendum, what we are going to see is that they will claim that the population are now russian citizens and thus in need of russian protection. phil: as these so-called referendums were being held, we saw pictures, unverified, of soldiers accompanying brought

workers and knocking on doors. the whole thing looked quite impressive. your workers highlighted the ways civilians have been forced to participate in the russian occupation. just give us an idea of what life under russian occupation has been like for people. bella: indeed. the sham referendum are just the next staple of the power consolidation that started from day one of the invasion. we have been looking at over 200 data points of evidence that show that since the beginning of the cupation, russia has been implementing several mechanisms to bring this into reality, with the proposed legitimacy of the occupation administration, and also with forcing ukrainian citizens in the occupied areas to cooperate. the manipulation goes beyond votes, ukrainians have been forced to cooperate directly and indirectly.

the referendum vote -- have been going on for much. to invite people, those who have mobility issues or in the end stage of their life, to invite them to get the russian passport. you have russian soldiers knocking on your door. russian passport. you have no choice. also in occupied areas, from water supply to assume cards, it is very hard to do it without accepting occupation. you cannot do business if you d't have a russian passport, so it is very difficult. then we have the direct means of coercion like torture, abductions, threats, illegal detentions. phil: a quick word on how ukraine has been countering russian misinformation. belen: i will say that kyiv has

been very effective at exposing what russia is dng, how russia is lying, utilizing social media to show the world the health of open source data. their messages have be effectively amplified by the diaspora. and also western media. authorities have been supporting them. to boost the morale of ukrainia. for example with the case of snake island early oin the invasion. they have been quite active. phil: thank you for that belen , carrasco rodriguez, from the center of information resilience. the russians the tory has called up more than 300,000 reservists for the war, but countries bordering russia have reported that nearly 200,000 russian

nationals have entered since the mobilization was declared. others are staying and protesting, despite the risks. [protestors chanting] reporter: no to war, they shout. hundreds of demonstrators take to the streets to protest putin's mobilization. authorities arrested many of them. among them was mikhail, a 29-year-old musician and podcaster. he says he spent six hours in custody, during which the police tried to force him to sign a draft notice. >> i was taken into another room . there were numerous men there. two were police officers and another two were in plainclothes. they opened the door from the inside and began telling me that i was nobody. they humiliated me, shoved me around, even kicked me. i had to endure it all.

in the end, i made out without signing anything. now, i will just have to wait and see what happens. reporter: since his detention, mikhail has been staying with a friend. he hardly goes out, to avoid. he could be called up for the mobilization, because he has completed his military service. but, he says he has been against the war from the very beginning. >> there is no way that i will be drafted. i would rather go to a penal colony and go to war. reporter: russia's military has reportedly suffered heavy losses in ukraine. moscow hopes fresh troops will save its fortunes. critics say the draft is considerably more universal and more arbitrary, particularly for other regions. men without basic military

training are afraid of being sent to fight, like this warehouse wker. >> they say to us, just go. but they don't care whether we me back soday. we are just cannon fodder. the goal of this mobilation is to stock up on cannot fodder and win with quantity, since the quality is not there. reporter: podcaster mikhail says he doesn't want to flee abroad, even if it is risky staying in russia. >> i can sense something inside me. a sense that i don't like what is going on here, and i want to defend myself. i think there is still hope, but if no one stays in russia, then no one can change anything. [protestors chanting]

reporter: mikhail wants to continue taking to the streets to protest against putin's war, even if he and his fellow demonstrators could face up to 15 years behind bars for doing so. phil: the european union leaders say ruptures in the nordstream pipeline's were probably caused by sabotage. scientists recorded undersea explosions in the lines connecting russia and germany. large plumes of guys are leaking into the baltic sea. though there is no claim of its possibility, poland says the leaks market escalation in the war in ukraine. reporter: fuel filling out into the baltic sea. after what the e.u.'s top diplomat says is likely an act of sabotage. the nordstream pipeline link russia and germany. three red dots marked the places where the leaks were detected. even though the pipelines are not currently delivering russian gas to europe, they are still full of fuel.

european leaders say they are fairly certain about the cause of the leaks. >> we have swedish intelligence, but we also have received information from denmark, and based on this, we concluded that this is probably a deliberate act. it was probably a case of sabotage. reporter: the e.u. has vowed retaliation for any attack on their energy network. the leaks are expected to last for at least another week, and only then can investigations begin. phil: our next guest is a military analyst at the royal danish defense college in copenhagen. i asked him who would benefit from these attacks. guest: first i would say, we have to be aware that this is apparently an attack that is very deliberately designed to look like sabotage. nobody is trying to hide what is

going on. we have to look for somebody who would be interested in this actually look like sabotage, but also to not beomething we can clearly attrute to a particular actor. it is somebody who wants to be discussing this question. exactly who could be behind this and who would benefit from these different ideas and theories being thrown around on social media. if we look at what has happened so far, we have had more instability on the energy markets in europe and uncertainty about gas deliveries, and we have had a lot of people on social media and also politicians, discussing who could be behind this, and some people in the west blooming each other, some people saying it is the polish, some saying it is the americans. when i lk at this, i would say pretty much only one actor in this whole field actually benefits from these two things, and that would be russia.

phil: it is interesting that we have framed it, that it is not necessarily the physical damage to the infrastructure itself, it is the uncertainty that that causes an the volatility in fuel prices that that causes, that all contribute. so let's say it is russia. everyone including russia is calling for a thorough investigation. and is an interesting party -- as the interesting party and prime suspect, is russia likely to be involved in the investigation? guest: that would be it of question because it is a russian-owned pipeline. could we even do the investigation without the involvement of gazprom, for example? so to some extent, russia will be involved, but there will be a lot of suspicion, i am sure of that. it will certainly be a big question how we will actually do that. also, what will this investigation show, and who will

accept the evidence produced by this as valid? that is also something that will be discussed. we will see. phil: who is responsible for what? guest: absolutely, it is going to be very complicated both technically, how do you actually conduct this investigation, but also as you say, all the legal aspects and international aspects of it. i don't have the answers for how it will be sorted out. phil: ok, we will continue to talk about this and add to the uncertainty. thank you for your expert analysis, anders nilsson from the world danish defense college. thank you. let's take a look at some more stories from around the world. supporters of iraq's influential cleric moqtada al-sadr have stormed part of the heavy the

fortified government area. they breached barriers in the green zone, demanding that parliament dissolve and hold new elections. iraq has been unable to form a government since october, 12 the outsider ordered his party to withdraw from negotiations. at least nine people have been killed and dozens injured after iran launched a series of drone strikes into the kurdish region of northern iraq. iranian authorities accused armed kurdish groups of stoking unrest in iran. the u.s. condemned the strikes as an attack on iraq's sovereignty. typhoon nori has made full in vietnam. airports, schools and offices are closed, and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated. no rule has been downgraded to a tropical storm, but residents may want to stay alert for landslides and flooding. meanwhile, hurrican ian has made landfall in florida, bettering the west coast of the state with winds of up to 250 kilometers

per hour. millions of residents have been advised to leave their homes. of those who have stayed, they are hunkering down in the face of extreme wind, heavy rain and a dangerous category four and could cause catastrophic flooding. late on tuesday, ian hit cuba, killing at least two people and leaving a trail of destruction and knocking out electricity across the island. reporter: plunged into darkness in the wake of hurricane ian. cubans in havana and all across the island were left without electricity after the country's entire power grid collapsed following the storm. western cuba took the brunt of the hurricane. with the storm pounding the region for more than five hours, many residents have been left

with next to nothing. >> we are terrified to see what we have here. we don't even know what to do. everything has been shattered. look at the state of this. reporter: much of the tobacco for cuba's iconic and economically important cigars is produced in the western region. but tobacco forms there have been devastated. phil: at least 76 people have been killed in the crackdown on iran protests, according to human rights groups. the protests were sparked by the death of 22-year-old mahsa amini in police custody, the largest antigovernment demonstrations in the country since 2009. our correspondent met with the nobel peace prize winner and an iranian political activist. she shared her thoughts on why this time, the protests could lead to change. guest: the struggle of the people of iran is also the nobel

peace prize winner struggle. we are meeting her in london, where she lives in exile. she senses there is change in the air. guest: there is a possibility of overthrowing the regime. the protests have taken place in over 100 different places, and the demonstrators are diverse, young, old, and from different walks of life. reporter: the protests, she tells us, are different this time. people unified in the revolt against human rights violations. many are also poor after decades of sanctions. >> unlike previous protests, people are not passive when they are beaten by the security forces. they respond by beating the security forces as well. reporter: the lawyer and activist says the international community must do all to help iranians. >> they just talk. we don't want words, we want action.

as long as there is depression, they should recall the ambassadors from iran and please add the perpetrators involved in killing these people, add them to your list of sanctions. reporter: she says, the rest should even use the talks on restoring the nuclear deal to put pressure on the regime. >> it is necessary to talk about human rights violations and nuclear issues together. done to stock about the nuclear issues, but include the human rights violations. reporter: her friends keep her updated about events in her home country. they sent her videos, after yet another night of protests. guest: on the one hand, i find it very upsetting and heart wrenching. on the other hand, i am very

proud to see how courageous my people are doing this protest. reporter: after many years in exile, shiran ebadi is daring to hope that things will change in her beloved iran. phil: now for something completely different. traditional chinese medicine has its adherents across the world, but lately, it has found a new clientele in its country of origin, china. pets are now being offered treatment for ailments. sounds strange, but not if you ask pet owners and their pets. reporter: a deep relaxation treatment. today this dog is getting a traditional chinese therapy that some pet owners believe is better than western medicine. they give their full trust to dr. li, who says his methods are

less invasive and more effective. >> for some pet pets with inflamtory bow disease, doctors of western medicine say it is incurable, that if they don't take hormones for the rest of their lives, they will have constant diarrhea. but i use acupuncture to cure them. reporter: this pet has problems with his legs and is a regular patient here. the doctor makes a thorough examination before planting needles at acupuncture points specific to dogs. the owner was told that the dog would become paralyzed, but after several treatments, she says her dog can walk normally, and sometimes even run. >> he is enjoying it. if he fes uncomfortable, he will refuse to come. but now every time i tell him we are going to visit dr. li for treatment, he gets very excited. reporter: every year, dr. li treats about 2000 animalsf all names and sizes, and many of

them seem to leave thelinic with newfound energy. one good reason for their owners too back. phil: as a reminder of our top story this hour, european union has outlined a fresh package of sanctions against russia that include sweeping new trade restrictions and cap on the price of oil. brussels is also targeting officials responsible for the sham referendums held in eastern ukraine. in just a moment, i will be back with "the day," a look at more pipeline problems between the european union and russia, and also asking why the british pound is in freefall. ♪

ñl >> welcome to live from paris,

world news and analysis fromis, france 24. these are the headlines. russia is to withhold passports of military age men in a bid to stop the mass exodus. the executive proposes an eighth batch of sanctions against russia, the 27 member countries are split on an oil price cap. ukraine says it is needed to stop blood money flowing from russia. iran's