until the polls open. ukraine s most senior security official tells the bbc the country is ready to launch its long expected counteroffensive against russian forces. hello, i m nancy kacungira. the home office says a nationwide issue with uk border force e gates is creating longer waiting times at passport control at airports across the country. it s understood the problems started on friday evening. there have been reports of long queues at arrivals in several british airports. this picture, tweeted on saturday morning from london heathrow s terminal 5, gives an idea of some of the delays which have been building up. heathrow has issued a statement, saying we are aware of a nationwide issue impacting the e gates, which are operated by border force. our teams are working closely with border force to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible. the issue is being felt at all points of entry to the uk although airports with passport e gates seem to be worst affected. th
against russian forces. in a rare interview, oleksiy danilov told the bbc the planned assault was an historic opportunity but the government had no right to make a mistake when making such an important decision. mr danilov has been speaking to our diplomatic correspondent, james landale. we have been talking about this counteroffensive for months, and during that time ukraine has been building up stockpiles of ammunition, it s been taking receipt of tanks and armoured vehicles from the west. it s been training its troops as much as it can. so when we sat down with oleksiy danilov, the man who is at the heart of what is effectively ukraine s war cabinet, it was inevitable that we were going to talk about the circumstances around which this counteroffensive may at some stage begin and this is what he told me. translation: we will figure out | when that will start so we can have that best result at that point of war. it could happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a
morning. president biden is headed back to washington after wrapping up a consequential g7 summit. the president says he has a call scheduled with house speaker kevin mccarthy once his meetings conclude in japan. debt ceiling talks appear to stall with negotiators on both sides saying they were unsure when they would meet again. republicans have called for a deep spending cuts in exchange for support to raise the nation bore heing limit. the president said that many of republicans demands are unacceptable. president biden held his first face-to-face with ukrainian president zelenskyy since they met in kyiv in february. during the sitdown, president biden announced a new $370 million $75 million security assistance package to ukraine. team coverage from around the globe. sam kiley is live in kirstjen nielsen. we begin with phil mattingly in hiroshima. we heard president biden speak, a big chunk of about the latest on the debt ceiling and doesn t seem like there is much
it was a responsible decision, he said ukraine had no right to make a mistake because as he said in the clip there, it s just such a historic moment. it s notjust a question of whether or not ukraine can retake a little bit of territory that has been held by russian occupiers. this is the moment when ukraine will find out can it shift the dial, can it actually break the apparent deadlock that has gripped the military side of this conflict for so many months. and that matters notjust for the ukrainian government, the people of ukraine here, but also for its western backers, who are looking to see whether or not all of their support, all of their money, all of their military equipment, can make a difference on the battlefield. talking of the battlefield, it was inevitable that we spoke to mr danilov about the situation in bakhmut, the eastern city, where in eastern recent days, the wagner mercenary group claim they have been withdrawing.