only corresponded nick connelly in khaki as join the r d w chief international their editor, richard to walker for more analysis of the last couple of days. events at welcome richard at 2 sets of troop withdrawals announced now by russia is, is too early to breathe a sigh of relief. yeah, i think it is phil too early into the comments that we've had from, from western leaders have been very cautious about this. was a lot on the line for the president of the european commission speaking just earlier this morning, saying that nato has seen no evidence so far of these ostensible troop withdrawal. so there'll be a lot of poring over satellite imagery of the next 2448 hours to see whether those withdrawals are really taking place where those troops, if they are on the move where they are, where are they going to? are they going back to places or are they going to move simply to other 4 forward positions where they could still pose a threat? and other developments continue to take place, which are more escalade trees. for instance, the russian parliament yesterday voting to call on a russia to recog

phenomena bureau chief in brussels. johnny's now from berlin is our chief international editor, richard walker. richard, the un security councils already reacted to russia's latest moves on ukraine. what's the judgment there? yes, very well, as you would expect, you to divide the adjustment. this was a night time meeting of the un security council that was held in public. the russian side wanted this to be closed session, but it was the u. s. side. insisting could it be public, and that of course, made it into stage 4 for trading of accusations between the u. s. and its allies and the russians on the other side with the chinese and the indians. rather broadly trying to stay on the fence between them on the american side, linda thomas greenfield. rubbish. this notion that russia is currently said to peacekeepers into this region, saying that that was simply nonsense. the russian ambassador for he's saying that russia remains committed to diplomacy, denying the suggestion that kaminsky agreements of these agreements that were signed 8 years ago to 70 years ago. in fact, to try to resolve there's

president of the american chamber of commerce and germany and t w's chief international editor, richard walker. welcome to you both, richard. let me start with you. what is germany? looking for in these talks, the u. s. has been pressing for the closure of the north stream to pipeline something that particularly all of shorts didn't want to hear anything about yeah, well, love shelves. his line for the longest time was always the north stream to this very, very controversial pipeline project. and then came russia to germany was a purely commercial project. and effectively, the understanding being from a point of view that, that it's not for government to get to get mixed into this could of course, the pressure now with the situation going on between russia, ukraine is on their totally different level of what he started saying. now of the past couple of weeks is that everything would be up for discussion that the american side is being far more explicit than that though. and tony blinking the secretary of state who was just in just a few weeks ago, he stood here and said explicitly that no stre

richard walker for more. welcome, richard. you watch the whole press conference. can you walk us through the more with their box it? yeah, well, i mean, a babel described the situation in ukraine at the moment and around ukraine as precarious and emphasized that rather than the de escalation, that western powers have been trying to achieve. in recent weeks of diplomacy, really intense shuttle diplomacy going on. rather, the opposite has been taking place and she referred specifically to exercises russian exercises involving 30000 troops that have been taking place or just begun recently in belarus, to the north of ukraine. also there naval exercises taking place in the black sea to the south. you will have russian troops a mass to the east. so really ukraine surrounded on 3 sides by varying degrees of russian military activity. bab, box comments, i think also chimed in with what we've been hearing it from the united states of the last 24 hours. really dire warnings coming from the u. s. administration that the military action by the russian side could be imminent.

so when i got straight across to our chief international editor, richard walker, richard at so much high level diplomacy going on right now on all france, where does the french president my mama crohn fit in yet? will mccoy is stepping into a sort of leadership role here. what we're witnessing with these talks are taking place in moscow today, and there is one kind of structural basis for that in that france currently holds the presidency of the european union, which is this rotating roll. so my coin partly in moscow in that role, but also i think what we're witnessing is him recognizing that there's been something of a void left by the departure of angle america from from leadership in germany. and of course, her successor, all of schultz is still finding his feet. all of shots himself is in washington today. also part of this kind of diplomatic flurry of activity that is going on. so emmanuel, my cor, i'm a kind of a leadership opening as the senior figure in european politics there. and you have seen a huge amount of activity from my coin recent week, particularly with outreach to vla

w as richard walker. thanks to you both and now to some of the other global business stories making headlines around the world. the german chamber of commerce h k is warning of an exit is a foreign companies doing business in russia that over moscow's recent mandate to extend medical tests for foreign workers, they include h, i v covered and regular blood tests and even x rays and psychological evaluations indonesia economy returned to growth last year, expanding by 3.7 percent after a corona virus trigger recession in 2020. the combat was based on robust exports as prices rose for paul, coal, and nickel. for this year, the central bank expects further growth of up to 5 and a half percent in the central bank has rescheduled monetary policy meeting after the death of baldwood legend lotta mangas car. a national holiday has been declared and memory of the late singer. a decision on monetary policy is not expected on thursday. and you and report says north korea's miss our program is being funded through sto

let's get more from the w is a chief international editor, richard walker. welcome richard. so some signs of some mover, but it sounds like it's too early to breathe. a sigh of relief. yeah, i think that's right. and phil, i mean, 1st of all, of course it's going to take a while to ascertain whether those troops really are moving. what numbers of troops are moving back? where are they moving back to? are they moving back to base or are they moving to other forward positions from which they also potentially pose a threat? so there's, there are those questions still to be answered? but still, many people have been clinging on to that moment yesterday when this announcement came out, is the 1st sort of deescalate return that this crisis is taken in many weeks of ratcheting up of steady escalation. but we should stress that also yesterday, some other escalate. 3 incidents did happen. we saw in the report there this vote in the duma in the russian parliament to call on the kremlin to recognize those rebel regions in east and ukraine. that will be a hugely disruptive move if the r

at germany latest news in this escalated crisis with the company's chief international editor richard walker. welcome richard. let's start with the on the letter. bare box comments that what did you make of that statement yet? well, will fill it. she was standing, that was her friend. can you tell your who's in berlin? they were stressing that they've been absolutely daily consultations for a long time now and even took part in today's german cabinet cabinet reaching so real side of just how closely germany and france coordinating on this. and that was cause of bad books. message is unity on the one hand with allies such as fronts in the west of the west, in the lines. but also a determination of purpose that germany is really determined to stand by ukraine. even if that comes at some cost, that she was referring to that with the north street to quite climb as some characteristically strong language from alina babel. she's only been in office a couple of months so far, but she's really beginning to make a name for itself as somebody who speaks very plainly, especially towards, towards russia

if you bring together the events of the last days, is to go use chief international aid to richard walker. richard, tell us more about the sanctions. i guess it's something that's going to take some time before they actually take effect. yeah, well their range of sanctions that have been brought in by, by the europeans, by the americans and by the japanese also. and some of the countries also involved the european union, foreign policy chiefs just burrell, was saying that these are the most severe sanctions that the has ever imposed in its existence. so and also they've been taught by the american side. very significant is very punishing sanctions. there have been some complaints the ukrainians, evidently not happy. they want to see the, the absolutely severest measures brought in, for instance, are locking russia out of this with payment system that you just mentioned. there also potentially most of the sanctions on the energy sector where, where russia important, but it was interesting for listening to joe biden, who held a press conference yesterday talking about that and just trying t

so let's get straight across to our chief international editor richard walker. for more on this story. richard, good to see you. there's been so much high level diplomacy going on right now on all fronts. can you tell us where the french president mcclung fits into this picture? yes, it's fascinating towards claire and to what we see here. i think it is to some extent. and manuel mccaul stepping into or aspiring to a leadership position within europe in handling this crisis. and there are a couple of reasons for that. first of all, france currently holds the rotating presidency of the european union. so to some extent, it, it is in that kind of capacity that we see mac or making that this visit. but also this, the aspect of what's been happening in germany in that angle, america, after 16 years in office, where she was really this kind of dominating figure in foreign policy in europe is no longer in office. here all are short, her successor is finding his feet currently. he's actually on a visit to washington as we just heard of that at the beginning there. so we

as a love in prime minister, making her date of his chief intellectual editor, richard walker, a german foreign minister on a. lemme bab walker has begun her 3 day trip to the middle east in israel, where she met with political leaders and visited the holocaust memorial in jerusalem. germany stop diplomat also laid a reef in memory of the 6000000 jews murdered by the nazis in world war 2. i should have the lessons of the past must not be forgotten today. the whole of names and yet the sham and memorial to the jews lost during the holocaust. their names, their life. stories under photographs are collected here. an archive of the millions murdered a culture decimated. it's the project to counter anyone who tries to deny or time play the nazi genocide, anti semitism, germany's foreign minister and elaine. a bare bach says the world must stand up against, especially to day as this over omitting to her flesh during this is our absolute obligation as a younger generation to keep the memory alive in, especially as there are fewer and fewer eye witnesses among us. when townsend owned as mountai

here i think you stand now to widen are aperture with the richard walker. d w's chief international editor who is with me here on the said, richard is more in eastern europe, less likely in the wake of these talks. well, i think we've seen some positives, both in the talks, but also the circumstance of what's been happening. today's, we've just heard from michelle festival in the talks we had, obviously, from our shows, but also from vladimir putin. pretty clear sign that he is open to further talks. not just in the process around ukraine, but also in the pro, in the, in the discussions around russia's demands for so called security guarantees from the west. certainly signals now come from russian side. they are open to continuing on those 2 class. we've had these ostensible reductions in true numbers along the ukrainian border. we don't have confirmation from that. it's going to take a little while until the certainty on whether that's really happening. but if that does go ahead, then that would be a sign of some de escalation after many weeks of escalation

richard walker is chief international editor. appreciate it. you've been watching our special life coverage of statements of germany's chance all of shorts and rushes. president vladimir putin following a meeting in the crown. and here is a recap of what's been happening in the last few minutes schultz and couldn't have been holding a news conference after talks in moscow, schultz called russia's massing of troops, new ukraine's border. a threat to european security, you were wanting to use things hunting with a pulse, a beginning of the story, moves and takes us along for the right. ah, it's own about the perspective. culture information. this is the w news and more d. w. made from mines. oh, and then the battle against cove it the only common variant is putting healthcare systems around the world to the test vaccination campaigns are accelerating while restrictions are intensifying once again. but are these measures enough to stop the spread of omicron, fax, data and reports? it's you know, a weekly coping special every thursday on d w. m. sk

ok, richard walker. international editor, thanks so much. russia's invasion has been met with horror in many parts of the world. people have been gathering outside russian embassies to protest putin's actions and express their support for ukraine. but in russia, taking part in public demonstrations could result in immediate detention. still, people took to the streets in multiple russian cities to decry the war, risking arrest even prison time to show the world that russia is not united behind president putin. thousands came out across the country, chanting no to war. they were flaunting a ban on demonstrations. police arrested over 1700 people, half of them in the capital. moscow. authorities warned they could be charged with a crime with, i don't want russia to attack the crane like this. yeah, i have grandparents with the so anyways, i would like what happened is a shame. like many of us have relatives and friends from ukraine. and this is a betrayal of them. e, at the pre thank you so much like russi

and so did of you chief international editor richard walker. now moscow denies having any plans to invade ukraine, of course, but with more than 100000 troops as we just heard station near the border and a ramp up and military drills, tensions are reaching a fever pitch. american president, joe barton, is due to speak with russia as vladimir putin later today in the hope of averting war. more activity on all sides of the ukraine crisis. russia's ministry of defense released footage of navy ships arriving in savannah to pull bay on the black sea. in the russian annexed crimean peninsula. they're here taking part in large scale landing drills. the situation makes many ukrainians uneasy. it's not a pleasant feeling. believe me, to understand that you and circled by the russian troops from bellow, wish 1000 kilometers more than one. follow them from the east. and the last couple of days, sir, russia actually close to the entire a z o c and the the particles do. blake see actually excess ukrainian ports to the black seat. ah, the united states wante

and we can bring indeed of your chief international editor richard walker. tell us more about what atlanta burbock had to say if you would. yeah. well, nick should be speaking just in the last hour on a trip to cairo, where she's on a tour of the middle east. and of course the situation in ukraine is so serious that that, that burst into the agenda there as well. she described the situation there as precarious in ukraine, saying that there hasn't been de escalation in recent days, but rather the opposite. and then setting out what they're doing in terms of german nationals in ukraine. so they are keeping the embassy open at this point in kia they're saying, but they are reducing the head count there, but they're moving out family members of embassy stuff. and other agencies, such as relief agencies and agencies working in ukraine are being told to leave. they're also moving a consulate from the eastern part of the country to the western part of the country . they say that that is a temporary move. and then 2 german nationals who are just on ordinary business

but if someone is here is lying, did abuse chief international added tart, richard walker joins us from the immune execute a conference. hello richard. what was the key message from blood mad? zalinski speech? hire d yet? well, it was a really striking speech that he gave here a munich and just a couple of hours ago. and if you think about it, it really was an extraordinary step for him to leave his country. at a moment of such a heightened danger for ukraine to the extent that joe biden, to you as president last night, a question whether it was sensible for zelinski to leave the country at a time where there, when it was in such peril. but sir lensky did make that move because he wanted to come to the audience here of collected essentially the collective west sitting here . the german chancellor, the vice president, united states, and many other very important western leaders gathered here who gave him a standing ovation at the beginning of this speech. but the, his message that he went on to give them was for many of them quite an uncomfortable message. he was essentially saying, well

and let's bring in our chief international editor richard walker for more. tell us more about the german government announcements will. yeah, that's right, nick, this is really just happened in the last few minutes. so the foreign ministry has posted a travel warning on its website. this is the place where issues travel warnings as a little bit less categorical than what we're hearing from some countries at the moment. but it is advising that germans, if they are in ukraine at the moment that they should consider if their presence there is essential. and if it is not, they should leave the country very soon. and explaining this by setting out the reasoning for this being. obviously the military tensions between russia and ukraine, the build up of the troops and that this has intensified in recent days. so similar thinking from what we're hearing from other countries, but we have that, that little kind of slight difference that saying that it should be just like only if your presence in ukraine is not essential. you should leave. but what we're expecting to h

your chief international editor richard walker is also here with me to take us through these developments. step by step. can you tell us what else you're hearing, richard on the situation in ukraine? well, i think we're all dependent on our sources on the ground. and of course we have report is there too, but obviously a massive military invasion taking place at the moment. which is certainly not just targeting the eastern part of ukraine, which has been the focus of this, this ongoing, really kind of slow burn war ever since 2014. this is a huge escalation by vladimir putin sending in forces and power from all sides. essentially the north east and the south ukraine obviously is going to be not for nothing this, this expression, the fog of war, there's going to be a lot of confusion in, in the next few days. what is changed in recent years is that we have access to a lot of what's called open source intelligence. so from the ground people using social media specialists in the stand collating that on social media to try and get a sense of what's going on on the ground. but we can expect th

1991 1st part on location at the munich security conference is our chief international editor, richard walker. richard, a very pivotal moment for the conference to be taking place absolutely later. and of course, this is really the, the question that is on everybody's lips. you can hear the chatter in the background, probably in the holes behind me. we have a lounge. is it just just alongside as here, where you have all sorts of delegates politicians, members of the military? you have some spooks in there. a think tank has all essentially asking each other, what they think is going to happen. how dangerous this this situation is. what is putins next? move going to be, and the sort of steady drumbeat of news coming from the region from the russians about those exercises taking place with their nuclear forces. also from those rebel regions in east ukraine. now talking about evacuating a numbers of people from there, but those kind of bits of news only adding to the concern here that something really very dangerous might be imminent. russia richard has not sent an official delegation for the 1st

with the w chief, international correspondent, richard walker. richard, bring us up to date on how serious the situation is right now in ukraine. how far these troops have managed to get? yeah, well we, we do have reports from our own team in g, f, and many others have been reporting this to sent explosions in the area around here . early this morning we sent people into sellers into bunkers, seeking shelter for the, for mr. of ukraine, very outspoken man of c. we saw that he's been talking about this to also the americans have been saying that the russian ground forces, who, which have been coming in from the north, from bella rose overnight past a nuclear plant, for instance. those forces now very close to the capital t. so i think this does raise one of the questions, which i think is the key question that we have at this point in this situation is how quickly is this all going to proceed? is clear from vladimir putin speech before this invasion began that he wants to topple the government in ukraine. he doesn't have small goals here. he has th

refrain from such escalating statements, nibbling door now by our chief international editor, richard walker. richard once stood out for you from that news conference with german foreign minister on elena bambrick just now yet, were there, there were a few things that is definitely to touch on what we just heard there from. and alina burbock, that message on or on the proteins move yesterday to, to put his cell nuclear forces on, on an elevated level of alert. i think that's very much in tune with other messages that we've heard from other western leaders, you know, trying to stress that nato is no threat whatsoever to the, to the russian federation. and that, that kind of threat has no place in a situation like that. i think it was also interesting to pick up on a one thing that there slovenia, and foreign minister said, relating back to what's been going on here in germany over the last 243648 hours, which is a dramatic change in germany's attitude to foreign and defense policy with the chancellor, all of sholtes ment, announcing yesterday and in a massive hike in defense spending with a c

position near the russian ukrainian, border artless ganette, our chief international editor, richard walker for some context to what we're seeing here. we've got a lot of high level diplomacy going on right now. richard, on all fronts. where does the french president, where does he fit into all of this? yeah, it's really interesting to watch, isn't it? brand are also in the context of what we've just been talking about there, about all of shawls in washington. now you have the french president, a manual in my court in moscow, and this is being interpreted, i think, is him claiming something of a leadership role within europe. now in dealing with this crisis. and that has a couple of reasons behind it. first of all, france is currently holding the rotating presidency of the european union. so it's partly in that role that he is in moscow right now, but also referring back to what that discussion just now about all of sholtes. because the reality here in germany is that all i've sholtes is a new chancellor, finding his feet are trying to fit into the very big shoes left behind by angle americ

wireless good at our chief international editor, richard walker. he's been following events for is to day getting me to you, richard, so much high level diplomacy is going on right now on all fronts. where does french president emanuel my crone? where does he fit in here? well, what we're witnessing really at the beginning of this, this week here in europe. brent is mac hong kind of taking a kind of leadership position within european politics for himself. here. i think there are a couple of reasons for that. first of all, france currently holds the rotating presidency of the european union. so, so we see my court in moscow partly in that role representing the european union as a whole. but also, i think this is in part about germany. of course, we've seen all our shots, the new chancellor of germany, he's currently in the united states. schultz is under pressure as we were just hearing from, from all over there. he's finding his feet in this new role. big shoes to fill, of course, angle america was it was in office for 16 years and she really had a

dw steve international editor richard walker joins us from them. unique security conference, sir richard her as we're waiting for vladimir zalinski to take the stage. what do we expect? ukrainian president to say? yep. monica woke? well, 1st and foremost it was really touching go whether he was going to be coming here to munich today. just last night, joe biden, in an address from the white house kind of voiced a questions about whether it was really advisable to leave ukraine for the president, you know, given the current situation, given the warning says coming from the united states would bluntly from joe biden, saying that he believes that, that vladimir putin has made the decision already to go ahead and mount military action. so there were questions last night really about whether zalinski was, was even going to come here. whether he might think it would be a safer for, for him to remain in kiev. but of course now we do know he'll be here. he'll be speaking very shortly. and as you just mentioned at the beginning of the show then monica, we did catch a glimpse of to lensky meeting

moment for 1st to bring together the events of the last day is the w chief international editor, richard walker. richard, it's been 24 hours since russia loads the invasion of ukraine. where do we stand? well yeah, so we're looking back on an extra 24 hours. so we, we sat here a day ago, and so russia heading towards the maximum of the scenarios that have been laid out as possibilities, is this crisis emerged in recent weeks and months. and i think what we've seen so far, russia has gone for that is given up on any attempts and diplomacy. then in the last 24 hours we've been talking about here at the west has been kind of gathering itself together. announcing sanctions the next stage and sanction so early a started with sanctions in response to the russians, recognizing those separate regions in the new friends independent. now there's a 2nd stage of sanctions in response to this invasion. and i think really the focus now is like, where is the ball now? is to see on the one hand, how quickly does rushes attempt to take over in ukraine to topple the government. how quickly does that proceed very

weapons and it are more about this emergency session of the when general assembly i can i welcome richard walker. he's our chief international editor, richard. this session is still ongoing. what do we know has been happening so far? yeah, well we'll powerful words there from antonio. good terrorist, opening this very unusual meeting. they've only been 10 sessions of the un general assembly of this kind of ever. we heard that warning from, from him on vladimir putin stretch around the nuclear weapons and carry saying at this point, enough is enough. there's been so much violence. already. civilians are suffering. that is really time for this to finish. already. we also heard from the ukrainian ambassador, maybe we can talk about that in a moment. the russian ambassador went through many of the talking points that we've heard from vladimir putin about how this is all the fault of the current ukrainians and pointing the finger also at the west. and it was also interesting to see the chinese ambassador, who gave a very short and low key intervention. the chinese position has been really interesting

i'm joined in the studio by the devil's chief international editor, richard walker, and from videos in lithuania, by d. w. russia, analyst, constantine. i got richard to you 1st. i think the question on everybody's mind is, why did president putin invade ukraine? yeah, well very, we're going to go in deep into the background, of course, in our talks today, and it's great to be on with konstantin today to talk about this as well. but i think this sort of the, the most immediate reason is that vladimir putin has decided to do what he can to dial back the clock to before the protest that we saw at the end of 2013 beginning of 2014 there, which toppled a government that was favorable towards russia in ukraine. he wants to dial back the clock to before then. he doesn't like the political direction that ukraine is taken in recent years. he's like this strategic direction. it's taken, he doesn't like the social direction. he's taken it taken. so he is decided to remove the government and replace it with one. it's more in the previous mode, one that he finds more clients to, to his view of wha

richard walker, of your chief international editor, is here with me. so good to have you back, richard. any diplomatic breakthroughs that we can report on? no, i wouldn't say that there were diplomatic breakthroughs then. i think, i mean, the shots team, we're setting expectations low for this trip, essentially saying that the most important thing is to keep the dialogue going. and we've seen how many people have been involved in that dialogue so far ranging from biden, to manual my call to schultz. now it is sort of a diplomatic, merry go round, almost going on. but the certainly signs that from vladimir putin clear signs which we were beginning to hear also in the last couple of days that the russian sides are also willing to keep talking. that they are not least according to that public messaging about to pull a trigger of any kind. and, and i think what was quite interesting though to hear in that sound like we just heard from like, ma'am, pushing that last one. just that way he was talking about you go, she ations about her rational security. i rem

it's it is part of that defense commitment article 5, just like any other richard walker. thank you very much for the analysis will be returning to you throughout the day. first, watching that press conference at nato headquarters was our correspondent, terry schultz. terry, a brutal act of war with the words by that a. her secretary general, your thoughts very stark words coming from nato secretary general young stilton burg today, criticizing russia in no uncertain terms and praising the ukrainian armed forces also for what he said is their bravery in repelling this attack. but yes, nato is definitely on alert, very disturbed by this. what secretary general silverberg said was all of their attempts to make sure it did not come to this. and now the worst has happened. nato is strengthening its forces in the east. what does that mean? that's right to the north atlantic council met this morning in what's called article for consultations. and that is when one of the allies, or in this case more several up to 8. i think i called this article for consultation today. that means

from our chief international editor, richard walker, thank you very much. it's unclear just how many ukrainians have managed to flee their home since the beginning of the russian invasion yesterday. traffic jams packed trains and bus stations suggest tens of thousands in neighboring poland. hundreds of you credit and spent the night sleeping in the train station just over the border from ukraine, some of residence in poland and were waiting for trains that would take them to their final destination. others were on route to seek refuge with family and friends. it well, is europe prepared for the influx of refugees that might come the w if international editor richard walker is still with us richard? or do you think? yeah, well you have been saying that this is absolutely something that they are having to reckon with that they could be a large movement refugees. this is of course something that europe has dealt with on various occasions over the last decade or so. and something that can be quite politically challenging. the big picture is europe still, despit

i'm joining the studio by the devil's chief international editor richard walker and from videos in lithuania, by d. w. russia analyst, constantine. i got richard to you 1st. i think the question on everybody's mind is, why did president putin invade ukraine? yeah, well, very, we're going to going deep into the background, of course, in our talks today, and it's great to be on with constantine today. to talk about this as well, but i think this sort of the, the most immediate reason is that vladimir putin has decided to do what he can to dial back the clock to before the protest that we saw at the end of 2013 beginning of 2014 there, which toppled a government that was favorable towards russia in ukraine. he wants to dial back the clock to before then. he doesn't like the political direction that you train is taken in recent years. he's like this strategic direction is taken. he doesn't like the social direction he's taken is taken. so he is decided to remove the government and replace it with one. it's more in the previous mode. one that he finds more client to, to his view of what you train

i'm joined in the studio by the devil's chief international editor, richard walker, and from videos in lithuania, by d. w. russia analyst, constantine. i got richard to you 1st. i think the question on everybody's mind is, why did president putin invade ukraine? you have a very, we're going to go in deep into the background, of course, in our talks today. and it's great to be on with konstantin today to talk about this as well. but i think the sort of the, the most immediate reason is that vladimir putin has decided to do what he can to dial back the clock to before the protest that we saw at the end of 2013 beginning of 2014 there, which toppled a government that was favorable towards russia in ukraine. he wants to dial back the clock to before then. he doesn't like the political direction that ukraine is taken in recent years. he isn't like this strategic direction. it's 8 and he didn't like the social direction. he's taken it taken so he is decided to remove the government and replace it with one. it's more in the previous mode. one that he finds more clients to, to his view of what

very much for being on the show. duction and i'm here with dw is chief international editor, richard walker. richard a lot happening as we've been reporting. talk through what we know at this moment. well, as we've been hearing from our reporters on the ground to mean what we are witnessing is pretty much the worst case scenario, which the americans in particular, the warning of, with greater and greater urgency in recent weeks. that vladimir putin with this recognition of these separatist regions in easton ukraine earlier this week that he wasn't going to stop there. that that was actually the prelude to, to something much, much larger. and it does seem to be all our total invasion of ukraine with the goal, as putin said himself in his, in his address overnight. the demilitarization and the nuts, if a cation of ukraine and press for bringing to justice, those who have committed numerous bloody crimes. and that is a signal that, i mean, his goal is to remove the government to install presumably a government that, that he favors. he said that it is not his goal. it's not his objective to rem

richard walker did the chief international editor covering for us immunity care security conference. thank you so much. tensions and eastern ukraine are flaring up as must come back separatists running the region. i've begun evacuating civilians to russia. they've accused ukraine of artillery shelling and they're now calling for larger mobilization. keith denies any attack saying it's villages near the separatist control areas have been under bombardment. on friday, the separatist leader in one of ukraine's breakaway regions was telling people to evacuate the area and had for russia, claiming ukraine was planning an attack. within a day, when, what appears to be a further escalation, the self proclaimed head of that than that the people's republic made a call to arms. the way similar go by a whole on fellow country men who are in reserve to come to the military commissary acts. to day i signed a decree on general mobilization home, and i appeal to all the men of the republic who are able to hold weapons in their hands to stand up for their families. that children, wives and mothers r

i'm joining the studio by the devil's chief international editor, richard walker and from videos in lithuania, by d. w. russia, analyst, constantine. i got richard to you 1st. i think the question on everybody's mind is, why did president putin invade ukraine? yeah, well very, we're going to going deep into the background, of course, in our talks today, and it's great to be on with konstantin today to talk about this as well. but i think this sort of the, the most immediate reason is that vladimir putin has decided to do what he can to dial back the clock to before the protest that we saw at the end of 2013 beginning of 2014 there, which toppled a government that was favorable towards russia in ukraine. he wants to dial back the clock to before then. he doesn't like the political direction that ukraine is taken in recent years. he's like this strategic direction. it's a can, you didn't like the social direction he's taken is taken. so he is decided to remove the government and replace it with one. it's more in the previous mode, one that he finds more clients to, to his view of what you train

hoping to get some before it's too late. ellia i spoke to did of use chief international editor richard walker. how them you execute a conference and asked them what impact zalinski appearance might have on the situation. well, certainly we'll have a sort of a moral and a psychological effect on the audience here. i think everybody would have been impressed by his courage in this situation. a flying out of ukraine, bringing this message here, and also being, being so steadfast in the demand that he's making. but if you look at the details of the things he's calling for, for instance, a really clear prospect of, of when his country might be able to join nato. that is very unlikely to come. he wants more weapons. he wants germany, for instance, to supply weapons. germany is very unlikely to do that is repeated that over and over. so in terms of the specific demands, you might not get everything he's asking for. financial support is probably one thing that you will get more of that. but in terms of the sort of psychological and moral effects on the lead is cavity, i think it did have an impact. w

it also them, our colleague richard walker was at the press conference asked a question that referred to reports that a non ukrainian or people who actually tried to flee ukraine and cross the border held off. and there was also controversial statement, apparently from ice. lavinia, politician about that, and babylon said, oh refugees, hoboken not dependent on passport. is there unity, the you not precisely. it's really fascinating to compare the situation now with a situation in 2015. as you remember, it was because of hungary, extremely restrictive policy on immigrants who were coming from the middle east, from syria, also from afghanistan, essentially hungry, shutting down its orders that persuaded anglo michael to take her revolutionary decision to open the german border and lead in a 1000000 refugees, which proved to be a very traumatic event here in germany now managed well, but it took quite some time compared to that. what we're seeing now is some of the same countries that held back in 2015 hungary that were very reluctant to see middle eastern refugees enter. poland, of cour

i can i welcome richard walker. he's our chief international editor. richard. this session is still ongoing. what do we know has been happening so far? yeah, well, we'll powerful was there from antonio. good parish, opening this very unusual meeting. they've only been 10 sessions of the un general assembly of this kind of ever. we heard that warning from, from him on vladimir putin stretch, surrounding nuclear weapons. and could, terry saying at this point, enough is enough. there's been so much violence. already. civilians are suffering. that is really time for this to finish. already. we also heard from the ukrainian ambassador, maybe we can talk about that in a moment. the russian ambassador went through many of the talking points that we've heard from vladimir putin about how this is all the fault of the curt ukrainians and pointing the finger also at the west. and it was also interesting to see the chinese ambassador who gave a very short and low key intervention. the chinese position has been really interesting to watch because they're trying to sort of s

richard walker has been speaking with the latvian a prime minister or 2 as the christian, his calendar, about how his country is dealing with the russian build up. i miss karen, how dangerous is the situation at the moment? how close are we to a possible war? well, it's not clear if there will won't be a war. but one thing is clear, president putin is fighting against ukraine's independence against their democracy . that's the 3rd that he feels he talks about the encroachment of natal. but what he is really fighting is the independence of ukraine. and this is what we in the west, what we in the european union, and what we, as nato member states, have an obligation to support is ukrainian independence. that is what is at stake. but you do see the troops that are a master, agen crane is a real threat, a potential threat that could lead to conflict. of course, it's a very real threat. we've seen the exercises before last spring are much higher troop concentrations. there's a refusal to allow observation of the x to sizes and bellows, which are also unannounced. so there are a troops not o

and let's bring in the w's chief international editor, richard walker for the situation. there are some interesting views there to pick up on the issue of nature. and the concern in the baltics is that a real concern the people of the baltics a so close to all of this. we see troops, russian troops along the borders building up there of the past few days. and now this attack, when you play, it is a concern for the both take state. so if you remember the geography, the baltic states are at the sort of north western end of russia close to st. petersburg there. they boarded 2 bellows southward, so they're very close to everything that's happening here. these countries are among the former members, what they used to be part of the soviet union. they became independent and also the break of the soviet union. and then earlier this century then they, they joined nature and they joined nature because they were concerned about russia's behavior. and if they didn't become members of this western alliance that something like this might happen to them. one day ukraine didn't join and

, said war is unthinkable with me here. listening into that all important press conference is richard walker. d w's chief international editor. so many, i do have to look at all my notes. i got all these notes here. let me just ask you a very open question in terms of, you know, we have all these leaders beating a path to mr. brewton. now, it's the chancellor's moment. how did it strike you? yeah, well i think in terms of tone compared to some of the the recent press conference.

so we'll hear from d, w g for international editor, richard walker, and then we'll come back to you room. this must be the most controversial piece of infrastructure in the world right now. north stream to a gas pipeline that connects russia to germany. it's recently been finished, but it's not yet up and running. and it has a lot of enemies. environmentalists hate it because it pumps a fossil fuel. ukraine's president hates it because it undercuts his country's pipelines. and the u. s. hates it saying it'll make europe too dependent on russian gas now with russian forces bearing down on ukraine's borders. u. s. president joe biden says one false move would be the last straw world. the notion that north stream t would go north stream to go forward with invasion by the russians just not going to happen. this was an awkward moment for german chancellor, olaf schultz, for years he'd insisted that north stream too had nothing to do with politics. meeting biden, last week, he was under a huge pressure to follow the u. s. line, but instead he spoke him generalities. now we would be united, we