ironically, putin s denial of ukraine s identity has strengthened what he set out to destroy. my guest is olesya khromeychuk. writer, historian and sister of a fallen ukrainian soldier. even now, do ukraine s allies understand what the stakes really are in this war? olesya khromeychuk, welcome to hardtalk. thank you so much for inviting me, stephen. it s a great pleasure to have you in this studio in london. and you live in london. you re the director of the ukrainian institute here in london. you re an historian of ukraine and eastern europe. and yet, i am sure that a lot of your mind is in ukraine. what kind of a distance do you keep from the daily reality of your homeland being at war? perhaps only physical distance, i suppose. the distance that, i suppose, would take 2a hours or so to cross, because at the moment we can t fly to ukraine any more, and it takes about 2k hours to get to my hometown now, which the journey that usually would take me 2.5 hours to fly to my home
first tremors finally collapsed. the 6.4 magnitude quake struck close to the border with syria. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. in vladimir putin s mind, ukraine is a fake state manipulated by the west. his effort to drag it back into the russian world began long before his all out invasion a year ago. back in 2014, he showed his contempt for kyiv sovereignty in crimea and the donbas. ironically, putin s denial of ukraine s identity has strengthened what he set out to destroy. my guest is olesya khromeychuk. writer, historian and sister of a fallen ukrainian soldier. even now, do ukraine s allies understand what the stakes really are in this war? olesya khromeychuk, welcome to hardtalk. thank you so much for inviting me, stephen. it s a great pleasure to have you in this studio in london. and you live in london. you re the director of the ukrainian institute here in london. you re an historian of ukraine and eastern europe. and yet, i
led the country. he has vowed to make his country a great environmental power . pope francis has addressed thousands of people who ve gathered at st peter s square in the vatican, a day after the death of benedict xvi. the pope described his predecessor as a faithful servant of the gospel, and the church. the archbishop of canterbury, justin welby, has described britain s social care system as broken . in his new year message he said that he wanted everyone to work the climate campaign group extinction rebellion says it will temporarily stop using public disruption tactics in the uk. hundreds of the activists have been arrested after blockading traffic, locking and gluing themselves together, but the group say very little has changed . now on bbc news. review 2022 the war in ukraine. over the next half an hour we will chronicle russia s invasion and tell the story of the conflict which has seen many thousands of people killed or wounded and millions of others displaced
has triggered international outrage. two people have been shot dead in paris and two others seriously injured. police say a 69 year old man has been arrested. you are watching bbc news. now review 2022 the war in ukraine. over the next half an hour, we will chronicle russia s invasion and tell the story of the conflict which has seen many thousands of people killed or wounded and millions of others displaced. the story of the war is told by our correspondent paul adams, and a warning you may find some of his programme distressing. translation: a decision has been taken about a special military operation. singing. translation: we are defending our independence, our country. i glory to ukraine. explosion. in the depths of winter, a growing menace. russia flexing its muscles. preparing for something. moscow said these were simply drills, it had no plans to invade. but for months, it held a gun against ukraine s head. the west was alarmed. satellite images showed russian forces
anthony: what does it mean to be strong? it implies hardness, inflexibility. okinawa is a place with a fighting tradition. a history of ferocious resistance. but it s nothing like what you might think. not at all. i took a walk through this beautiful world felt the cool rain on my shoulder found something good in this beautiful world i felt the rain getting colder sha la la la la sha la la la la la sha la la la la sha la la la la la la anthony: this is okinawa, just south of mainland japan. for all the relative rigidity of the mainland, okinawa answers in its own unique way. don t eat the same thing each day. that s boring. there s even an okinawan term for it. chanpuru, something mixed. bits borrowed from all over served up for anyone to eat. but maybe you re more familiar with the name okinawa from this. as the setting for some of the most horrifyingly bloody battles of the second world war. how horrifying? for the allies there were more than