head and research fellow of the ukraine forum for russia and eurasia. thank you forjoining us. i want to talk about president zelensky and his visit beyond the capital region of kyiv. we have talked a lot during this war about morale and how the ukrainians morale has been much higher than the russians so how important symbolically was it for him to make the journey further east? i him to make the “ourney further east? g him to make the “ourney further east? ~ ., him to make the “ourney further east? ~ ., .., him to make the “ourney further east? ~ ., , ., east? i think our cave is important for ukraine. east? i think our cave is important for ukraine, morale, east? i think our cave is important for ukraine, morale, because - east? i think our cave is important for ukraine, morale, because it. east? i think our cave is important for ukraine, morale, because it is| for ukraine, morale, because it is the second largest city that russia has tried to take and has failed, and it
it has been a very difficult few weeks for the eu trying to push through this six package of sanctions on russia. 0n the one hand, countries like hungary which say the effect of an oil embargo would be in the words of the prime minister, like a nuclear bomb on the hungarian economy and you have other countries like poland which say every day the eu is paying huge sums of money to russia for fuel which then goes to fund the war in ukraine. hard fronts here. people are continuing to negotiate to see if they can get some sort of compromise solution that might be given the green light today, any solution is going to take a lot of complicated details to work through. i m joined now by 0rysia lutsevych,
of ukraine. negotiations on the issue have been under way for weeks, but hungary which is heavily dependent on russian supplies is holding out against a ban. a meeting of eu ambassadors yesterday failed to agree a plan. well, earlier, ispoke to our ukraine correspondent joe inwood and europe correspondent bethany bell about the ongoing situation in the region. i spoke first to joe about president zelensky s most recent moves beyond the capital. he was in kharkiv which was a front line, this is a city that was under serious bombardment for most of the duration of the war. in recent weeks, the ukrainians have pushed the russians back. it was considered safe for him to visit. remember, this is a man whose personal security is crucial to the ukrainians. he s someone the russians have tried to kill on a number of occasions, sending hit squads to the capital. the fact they were happy to send him there means
president zelensky being there in the front line in the east shows he is leading the nation in a very important fight and also it s important fight and also it s important for people to see he has this bravery, that he can project notjust out of his bunker in a hugely protected area of kyiv but also out in the front line.- also out in the front line. morale is aood also out in the front line. morale is good but also out in the front line. morale is good but on also out in the front line. morale is good but on the also out in the front line. morale is good but on the ground, - also out in the front line. morale is good but on the ground, howl is good but on the ground, how difficult is it in places like the luhansk region? we heard from an earlier guest are saying this is a war of attrition, piece by piece, it may be in small steps rather than bigger steps but that is going to be very wearing for the ukrainian people and resources which they clearly need more of to fight the russi