it is immensely dangerous, and quite complicated. i don t see a good end to this for anybody involved, and that is russia. that s ukraine, that s the west, that s eu, that s everyone. certainly not in the near term. the thing that worries me the most about this is that i can t see any circumstance in which russian president putin doesn t end up in materially worse circumstance politically, economically, and geopolitically in terms of his position in europe s security environment which is ostensibly why he launched the attack to begin with. he s losing in a big way, and he s not going to handle that very well. makes it so much harder to get any useful outcome for negotiations. it makes it so much harder to gain a climb down, at least before kyiv is captured and president zelenskyy is forced out. it s very clear that is putin s overwhelming intent irrespective of what they happen to say about
prospect of a climb-down, so there is no reason to be optimistic. thank ou ve is no reason to be optimistic. thank you very much is no reason to be optimistic. thank you very much indeed. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet gave us the latest update on the fighting in kyiv. well, we heard from the mayor yesterday that nearly 2 million i people have left the city. that s perhaps not surprising. it used to be a vibrant city of 3 million. i those that are left, i and you have just heard from james waterhouse, - there are some that can t leave and those that stayed to fight. whoever is here is watching very closely all of the reports - about what is happening around the city. - we do have reports, particularly in the last 24 hours, that russian forces are trying | to move very slowly, but very certainly towards the capital from multiple directions. i from the north west, they seem to be most advanced. they are said to be less than ten miles away. i today, there wasn t
getting cheap grain from the ukraine and russia. ., getting cheap grain from the ukraine and russia. . ., ~ ., and russia. and i don t know whether anything emerges and russia. and i don t know whether anything emerges on and russia. and i don t know whether anything emerges on the and russia. and i don t know whether anything emerges on the diplomatic l anything emerges on the diplomatic front there in paris, with macron talking to putin. obviously any diplomatic openings are what everyone else rooting for the state because what is going on on the ground is so horrific. but because what is going on on the ground is so horrific. because what is going on on the ground is so horrific. but there is no reason ground is so horrific. but there is no reason to ground is so horrific. but there is no reason to be ground is so horrific. but there is no reason to be optimistic- ground is so horrific. but there is no reason to be optimistic on i ground is so horrific. but there
hundreds of thousands of people who are ready to do that, but as the sanctions bite, as where it gets around, because of course we know so many russians don t have any access at the moment as to what is really going on, but some do, particularly the younger generation. you just might see a groundswell, whether or not that can lead to either a literal or metaphorical decapitation of putin is another question, but it does give you a glimmer of hope. i know you are a footballing man, what do you make of this story about chelsea and middlesborough? following the sanctioning of their own and the impact it s had on chelsea. they can t sell tickets and therefore they asked for their game against middlesborough to be played behind closed doors for the sake of supporting integrity, they wouldn t have as many fans there as middlesborough and now they are being forced into a climb down. there is a lot of outrage over that request by chelsea. i
and hull. today, it is the spring conference for the conservative party in blackpool, so another opportunity and the protesters will take it. they will be up there when you have borisjohnson, the prime minister, and priti patel, the home secretary speaking the. at the moment, no sign of a climb down from p&o moment, no sign of a climb down from p&0 stop you have heard the line they have had for the two days. we had to do it, we had to look at alternatives but they didn t wash. we had to do something, we had to change the crew. i m not sure that is going to be. i don t think that is going to be. i don t think that is going to wash for an awful lot longer because as you saw, we re still talking about it two days on. this story has really touched a nerve the country. this story has really touched a nerve the country. tony, thank you very much- syria s president, bashar al assad, has made his first visit to an arab country since the beginning of the syrian civil war 11 years ago. presid