cry, is it? famously, general winter is russia s great ally. and although when vladimir putin launched his invasion of ukraine back in february, he clearly thought it would all be finished in a couple of weeks or so, he s now hoping to recruit general winter to help him win, more than eight months later. people in kyiv and many other towns and cities in ukraine are suffering from the loss of power and heating, even though on the battlefield itself, ukraine continues to do well. is the balance of the war changing, therefore? i spoke to frank gardner, the bbc s security correspondent. i think ukraine is still largely doing better because of the quality of its army, and its command structure and its use of combined arms. but russia is slowly reinforcing its front lines with all of these conscripts and reservists, some of them very poorly trained and poorly equipped. and it s very clear that what russia is trying to do is to make up for its military failures by punishing the civi
the ukrainian armed forces have made gains in recent months, but can they go further and will kyiv s backers in the us and europe maintain their support? well, my guest is general ben hodges, former commander of the us army in europe. could this winter be russia s friend? i m going to start with something you said just last month. you said total restoration of all of ukraine s sovereign territory, including crimea, is inevitable. now, a few weeks on, do you still believe that? even more so. i think ukrainians have achieved irreversible momentum. the russians are losing in every facet of this war. so that s why they re resorting to things like going after energy infrastructure, doing what they can, exactly as you said in the lead in, to stretch this out in hopes that the west would lose the will to continue supporting ukraine. but it s not a small thing, is it? the way the russians are hitting civilian infrastructure, they are, as we speak, cutting power and heat to millions o
in tigray for a permanent cessation of hostilities. the two year conflict has left hundreds of thousands dead, almost five million displaced, and a population on the brink of starvation. now on bbc news, it s time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. winter is coming to europe and vladimir putin is hoping the battle lines in his war on ukraine will be frozen, buying him time to reinforce at the front while exposing ukrainians and all of europe to the reality of an energy crisis. the ukrainian armed forces have made gains in recent months, but can they go further and will kyiv s backers in the us and europe maintain their support? well, my guest is general ben hodges, former commander of the us army in europe. could this winter be russia s friend? i m going to start with something you said just last month. you said total restoration of all of ukraine s sovereign territory, including crimea, is inevitable. now, a few weeks on, do you still believe that? even m
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Welcome to the show. Always a delight to have your company. Theres also fantastic news of a new clampdown on grooming gangs nationwide. Charlie peters, our reporter, will bring us all the latest on that, a topic very, very close to his heart. He did a course of documentary grooming gangs britains shame. Hes been pushing for action on this and now we have it. Plus i was speaking to lord walney. Hes speaking to lord walney. Hes the author of a controversial report published about two minutes ago into clamping down on on groups such as Just Stop Oil will strict new powers come into place to prevent them from protesting . To treat them like terrorist groups . Are we speaking with him and around about an hours time loads to get through, and a new way for you to get involved with your comments. And thats gb news forward slash com forward slash your say please send your comments and read out as many as i can during the show. But now its your headlines. Lets kick off. Its tatiana sanchez. Mart