Back in december, the optimism of the Ukrainian Forces was fading. There were fears it would be a bad winter and the russians were targeting Generating Stations and heating plants. But ukrainian engineers worked like crazy to restore power. And anyway, the winter wasnt that bad. Now some Military Experts in the west are even daring to suggest that the russian army might simply collapse over the next few months. Who knows . President xi jinping of china has presented himself as a deal maker in the war, but his proposals have so far been pretty vague and, perhaps not surprisingly, much more favourable to his friend Vladimir Putin than to ukraine. Theres less noise about a chinese invasion of taiwan, but many taiwanese leaders think itll happen by 2029. In the us, since december, ex President Trump has been accused of various crimes and been sued successfully for one of them. Yet his popularity with the Republican Party has soared, while his main rival, ron desantis, has faded. Now trump
hello, i m sally bundock, welcome to the programme. ukraine s president zelensky is returning home from a meeting of g7 leaders injapan. he left the summit having secured further promises of financial and military support, including american made f 16 fighterjets. the commander of ukraine s ground forces says they re close to surrounding the eastern city of bakhmut. ukraine has disputed the russian claims to have taken full control of the city. russia has lost thousands of men in the assault on bakhmut many from the wagner mercenary group. our diplomtaic correspondent james landale reports from kyiv. for more than eight months, in what s now the longest battle of this war, ukrainian forces have defended bakhmut. the eastern city is now largely in ruins and largely in russian hands in particular in the hands of fighters like these from the wagner mercenary group, whose leader yevgeny prigozhin claimed to have full control here. from house to house, he said, we took the
back in december, the optimism of the ukrainian forces was fading. there were fears it would be a bad winter and the russians were targeting generating stations and heating plants. but ukrainian engineers worked like crazy to restore power. and anyway, the winter wasn t that bad. now some military experts in the west are even daring to suggest that the russian army might simply collapse over the next few months. who knows? president xi jinping of china has presented himself as a deal maker in the war, but his proposals have so far been pretty vague and, perhaps not surprisingly, much more favourable to his friend vladimir putin than to ukraine. there s less noise about a chinese invasion of taiwan, but many taiwanese leaders think it ll happen by 2029. in the us, since december, ex president trump has been accused of various crimes and been sued successfully for one of them. yet his popularity with the republican party has soared, while his main rival, ron desantis, has faded
britain? linton kwesijohnson, welcome to hardtalk. nice to be here. so you were 11 when you came overfrom jamaica in 1963 tojoin your mother, who was already working here. how formative was that experience for you? it was a bit of a shock when i arrived. it wasn t what i had expected. in my childhood imagination, you know, you literally imagine the street of london paved with gold and palaces and carriages with kings and queens and that sort of thing. well, it has that sometimes! they chuckle. so it took a bit of getting used to. but when you re young, it s easier to adjust to a new environment than when you re old. and once i started school, you know, i settled down and, um. i did rather well at school because the education i had injamaica i went to an elementary school was in some ways superior to what i was confronted with at my secondary school, tulse hill secondary school. for example, they didn t teach grammar in english, which i did injamaica. mm hm. and it took a
hello, i m carl nasman, thanks forjoining us. we start injapan, where a weekend of diplomacy and solidarity among some of the world s most powerful political leaders has come to a close. ukraine s president volodymyr zelensky departed the g7 summit injapan with a pledge of unwavering support as well as more military equipment from his allies. on sunday, president zelensky and japanese prime minister fumio kishida each laid a wreath at the hiroshima peace memorial park. it was a moment of deep symbolism two leaders of countries that both know the very real and very painful scars of war. russia s invasion of ukraine dominated talks at the g7 summit. us presidentjoe biden confirmed that the us and its allies will help train ukrainian pilots to fly western fighterjets like the f 16, which president zelensky had long called for. biden also promised to support ukraine with more ammunition and armoured vehicles, partly as a demonstration of western resolve. we will not waver