greg, thank you. and it s being claimed that many more nurseries have closed for good during the latest summer term than in previous years, because rising energy bills and high inflation are driving operators out of business. the national day nurseries association, says that between april and july, 65% more nurseries closed, compared to the same period last year. the association is warning that this coming academic year, there will be a huge reduction in places. let s go to ukraine now. ukraine says it s successfully broken through russian lines, after beginning a counterattack in the south of the country. the fighting is centred around the city of kherson, which was seized by russia at the start of their invasion six months ago. ukraine s president zelensky has urged russian troops to flee, but the kremlin claims the ukrainian offensive has been a failure. 0ur correspondent hugo bachega has more details. well, for quite some time,
grain from the ukrainian black seaports. for more on this, let s go to ukraine s diplomatic editor nick ro robertson. this is something. his own troops now targeting odesa this morning. reporter: yeah. the u.s. ambassador here is calling it outrageous saying russia continues to weapon nice food. a spokesman at the foreign ministry said this is president putin spitting in the face of the u.n. secretary-general who brokered this deal. it s 20 hours after the signatures actually went on the paper, and according to an adviser of the ministry of the interior, one of those missiles landed 150 yards from a graveside. it could give you an indication
let s go to ukraine, now. russian forces are continuing their heavy shelling of towns and villages in eastern ukraine, in preparation for an expected new offensive to seize more territory. russia already occupies large areas of the south and east of the country and are pushing forward in the donetsk region. the latest russian target is the city of slovyansk. from there, jonathan beale sent this report. near the front line, close to the city of slovyansk, ukrainian troops prepare to target russian positions. they know this next battle will be crucial. i think that slovyansk is the next big aim for russians. distant explosions do you think you can stop putin? sure. you can? we will, we will. blasts of artillery, the familiar sounds of this war, but there s also a quieter, harder to see battle involving drones and electronic warfare, jamming and tracking signals. the russians have a lot of stuff for blocking
graduated steps towards some kind of retaliation, possibly initially legal action on freezing some of the legal action on freezing some of the legal action on freezing some of the legal action that they announced backin legal action that they announced back in 2021 and perhaps adding more infringement proceedings on the basis of what they would see as breaches of the protocol already by the uk. but all of that is a scenario that nobody really wants to get into, but if the uk goes ahead and overturns a mutually agreed treaty, then that would be seen as a very serious situation. very serious situation. tony, good to talk to you very serious situation. tony, good to talk to you again. very serious situation. tony, good to talk to you again. thank- very serious situation. tony, good to talk to you again. thank you i very serious situation. tony, good i to talk to you again. thank you very much for your time. and tony mentioned that there is a link that some in brussels and dublin are
quickly send their rockets back against the russians. the idea here is to try and give the ukrainian forces a bit of breathing room. try to get them to push back against russian forces in eastern ukraine so they can strengthen their own position if and when they can get to the negotiating table with the russians. president biden writing in an op-ed about why he selected these items for the package. he said in part, let me read it. pardon me. we have 3406 quickly to send ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition to fight in the possible position on the negotiating table. that s when we decided we would provide more advanced rocket systems. you see the president s statement go on there. they are hoping to get all of this into ukraine as fast as possible. okay. barra starr, thank you for your reporting. let s go to ukraine. melissa bell is there.