this was the moment he arrived at the prime minister s residence in rome, where he was greeted by italian president sergio mattarella. shortly after this, he met the italian prime minister, giorgia meloni. she s been one of ukraine s more vocal backers, although polls suggest that italian people overall are opposed to sending ukraine more weapons, as are some of her coalition partners. more now from the bbc s sofia bettiza in rome. more than 1000 security officers have been deployed in rome today. this is the first time the president zelensky visits italy since russia invaded ukraine last year. he has had a meeting with his counterpart, the italian president. they had a private meeting that lasted for about 25 minutes and some of the things that they discussed were economic sanctions against russia, the kidnapping of ukrainian children, the need to step up the fight against pro kremlin fake news and ukrainejoining the european union. after the meeting, president zelensky said
tomorrow, there might be some disruption as trains could potentially be in all the wrong places. but to tell you a bit about why the started. they have been going on now for nearly two years and is about pay and conditions. we know that the rmt union have been offered a pay rise of 5%, which would be backdated to 2022 and also i know that mick lynch, the general secretary of the union has also written to the government calling for a summit written to the government calling fora summitand written to the government calling for a summit and industrywide summit and he says he wants to end the rail chaos. the last hour or so we have heard from the government, from the department for transport and this in response anakin tell you what they said that since coming into office, ministers have met with the leadership four times and helped facilitate three fair pay offices for employers and now it s time for unions to give their members a democratic say on their future, so
people in italy was in a coalition government who are not so keen on that a clear example is silvio berlusconi, leader of the centre right political party is currently in government and he has and is a long time friend of vladimir putin, the two of them have gone on holiday together, they have exchanged birthday present and quite a delicate diplomatic situation for the president to do with today. we are expecting a press conference with mr zelensky and the prime minister of italy a bit later on and we will bring you that as soon as we get it. mr zelensky. mr zelensky s visit to italy comes as russia has carried out a new wave of air strikes on kyiv and other cities overnight. the authorities say the military intercepted all drones directed at the capital. but in the southern city
of mykolaiv, three people were injured in attacks. of mykolaiv, three people and in the western city of khmelnytsky, critical infrastructure as well as residential and government buildings were hit. the latest russian strikes come as ukrainian forces say they have made progress near the eastern city of bakhmut. 0ur correspondent hugo bachega is in kyiv. russia carried out another wave of air strikes on ukrainian cities overnight. and at the ukrainian military says that 21 drones were fired by russia. iranian made drones that russia has been using to attack ukrainian towns and cities. one of the targets was the region in the west of the country where civilian infrastructure was hit. the city of khmelnytsky. this is a transport hub in the west of ukraine. the authorities say at least 11