and don t miss jurassic world:dominion in theaters june 10th. now, as the battle for the east intensifies, ukrainian officials say russian forces are focused on establishing control over the city of severo donetsk, forcing civilian evacuations to be
lines in the bitter battle for the east. alex isn t a professional soldier. he s a software engineer who lived in the now smashed i.t. hub of kharkiv. his home has been destroyed. bunny is being serviced as the battle rages a few miles away. burning fields encroach on the tank s hideout. the front line in ukraine is hundreds of miles long. for many ukrainian soldiers on this front line, there s a sense that perhaps the russians haven t yet brought their full destructive power to bear. but they expect to find out this week. russia s artillery is relentless, and putin s tanks are massing, this army of volunteers is expecting a hard russian push. anna is 22, she s been a soldier for a month and now she s a driver in a reconnaissance unit. there is a lot of opportunities to be killed.
it can shoot guided missiles. alex was on a sniper team when he discovered bunny, stuck and abandoned in a field in march. eight days into russia s assault. within days, the tank was back in action, against russians. this is like my personal tank. i am tank commander and tank owner. in march, he says, the tank destroyed 24 russian vehicles and two tanks. we are fighting, so here we already destroyed three or four enemy tanks. we have three confirmed and four is like not fully confirmed that it was our kill. that was in the previous couple days when russian forces tried to break through ukraine s lines in the bitter battle for the east. alex isn t a professional soldier. he s a software engineer who lived in the new smashed i.t. hub of kharkiv. his home has been destroyed. bunny is being serviced as the battle rages a few miles away.
one thing that really came through in our conversation was how focused he is on the battle for mariupol, the broader battle for the east. you know, when i spoke to him, he said that that battle is likely to be the tipping point in this war. he said, one side or the other will likely see its armies destroyed in that battle for eastern ukraine. and he said, if ukraine holds out, then it has a real chance of winning this war. another thing that stood out really in our conversation was, he s been in touch directly with some of the officers who are holed up there in that steel plant in mariupol. they re texting each other. they re calling each other. he said with one of them he feels like he s become friends by now. late at night he s getting their texts. he wants to know what they need, what weapon systems they need, how they re doing, how they re holding up. so, it s this constant stream of communication that they ve been able to maintain. and the main message that he s
putin seems in no mood to repent for his aggressive invasion over the past 60 days. with no sign for the west is in support for the ukraine, may he be ready to resurrect those peace talks? vinnie mcaviney, bbc news. our reporterjoe inwood is in kyiv. we have been talking about odesa being one of the places trying to get back to normality, things were reopening there. quite clearly, a huge setback in the last 2a hours? yeah, absolutely. it is one of the things people suggested, that russia will continue these almost seemingly random strikes to keep ukraine on a defensive footing, to stop it bringing a defences forward because thatis bringing a defences forward because that is one of the important key areas in the battle for the east, that will be bringing an defences,