scrap vat, universal if the cap goes above £3000. beyond that, he is pledging more support that he says will be much more targeted, specifically at those on lower incomes and pensioners. the government and the treasury points to what it says is £37 billion of support. to what it says is £37 billion of su ort. ., to what it says is £37 billion of su ort. ., , to what it says is £37 billion of su ort. . , . ., support. helen, thanks very much for talkin: us support. helen, thanks very much for talking us through support. helen, thanks very much for talking us through the support. helen, thanks very much for talking us through the details. - to eastern ukraine now. it s being reported that ukraine has hit the headquarters of the wagner group that s a private army of mercenaries fighting for the russians. details including the number of casualties are not clear yet. but here s what we do know. it happened in the eastern luhansk region in popasna which isjust south of sever
yeah. we heard from president biden and other nato leaders last week saying they would support ukraine as long as it takes, in terms of sending military equipment. you just mentioned the fierce fighting there in the donbas. eastern ukraine. the russians are claiming they now control the luhansk region. they believe they the use it as a spot to jump off into the next region, continuing their attacks across the east. give us a sense, what do you know of where things stand right now in the donbas, mr. president? i have on my connection with the brigade, which is now on the east, and i definitely can confirm that in some part of the luhansk region, we still have the ukrainian troops. this is definitely not all of donbas under russia control. this is the propaganda machine. but i can confirm that the fighting is absolutely severe.
in the russian-occupied southern city of melitopol. there were several s there were severaltrikes on a single base. ellison barber, thanks for being with us. the eyes of the world for a long time have been focused on the donbas, the region in eastern ukraine. russia claims to control the luhansk region. what s next there? reporter: yeah, really, you have this situation, where severdonetsk, the sister city of lyschansk, fell. they d have to capture severodonetsk and make their way across the river to get to the sister city. they started from the south while they were fighting in severodonetsk. severodonetsk has been described as one of the bloodiest battles since russia launched its full-scale invasion of this
country. yesterday morning, you had russian forces claiming that they had taken full control of lysychask. remember, if you look back a few months ago in may, that is when russian forces claimed that they and russian-backed separatists controlled about 90% of the luhansk region. but you had these two cities, severodonetsk and lysychansk, ukrainians putting up a heavy fight. you had heavy street fighting ensue. now, what happens next? it is clear russian forces want to move further and ramp up attacks into the donetsk region. remember when russian forces failed their initial goals of taking some of the largest cities in ukraine, kyiv and kharkiv, they shifted their attention to the donbas region. president putin has made this claim that he needs to take back this area, liberate these areas, he says, of predominantly russian-speaking people, because
sure their prices go down, all those things. people want more of that. last july 4th, a moment when the president had positive poll numbers and also declared the nation was going to have its declaration of independence from the coronavirus. that, of course, wasn t the case. the delta variant showed up weeks later, and the president s poll numbers have yet to recover. politico s eugene daniels, thanks for starting the holiday with us, my friend. we ll talk soon. let s turn to the ongoing war in ukraine. after weeks of intense fighting, the last ukrainian stronghold in the eastern luhansk region has fallen to the russians, signaling at last a significant victory for moscow. ukrainian officials say their forces yesterday withdrew from lysychansk as they were waging a stiff but losing battle. president volodymyr zelenskyy says the decision to pull out was made to save the lives of their soldiers from the relentless russian assault in the city. he also vowed that ukrainian forces woul