independencde in 1960. this is the first of almost 80,000 artefacts that will be returned for display in museums in the drc. now on bbc news, hardtalk with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. when vladimir putin ordered his invasion force into ukraine in late february, is this the scenario he imagined for earlyjune? a brutal war of attrition in the donbas, a defiant ukrainian government deploying more heavy weapons from western allies, russian losses mounting, a punishing sanctions regime on moscow and more nato expansion in the offing? well, my guest, in an exclusive interview, is russia s ambassador to the united nations, vassily nebenzia. where does russia go from here? ambassador vassily nebenzia at un headquarters in new york, welcome to hardtalk. good afternoon, london time, mr sackur. it s a pleasure to have you on the show, ambassador. let me ask you this. after more than 100 days, would you say that russia s invasion of ukraine is going to plan?
well, my guest, in an exclusive interview, is russia s ambassador to the united nations, vassily nebenzia. where does russia go from here? ambassador vassily nebenzia at un headquarters in new york, welcome to hardtalk. good afternoon, london time, mr sackur. it s a pleasure to have you on the show, ambassador. let me ask you this. after more than 100 days, would you say that russia s invasion of ukraine is going to plan? well, i think it is progressing. nobody promised to deliver it in three or seven days, as some pundits are saying now, that the russian special military operation stalled and is not progressing at the pace that was initially envisaged, but the progress is being made. that s clear. one of the reasons of the so called slow pace is that we are not targeting. we are not targeting. ..civilian infrastructure and there is deliberately only hitting military targets, and it takes time. we are not doing carpet bombing or anything else like that. but the progress is th
at wisconsin and a grocery store in new york and a flee market in texas,and what should be safe spaces but instead the sites of four mass shootings over the weekend. and then kim jong-un calling in the military to help with covid. live from cnn center. this is cnn newsroom with rosemary church. good to have you with us. we begin with a seismic shift for european security as russia faces its consequences on the war in ukraine. on sunday, finland s government formerly announced it intends to join nato and then hours later sweden followed suit. they are widely expected to endorse the nation, and nato leaders said the approval process could move very quickly. sunday s announcement mark an historic policy change for two countries that remained neutral for decades, and it s likely to anger vladimir putin who has long-time considered nato expansion a threat to russia. finland s ambassador said russia has changed the calculous. the situation has changed rather profoundly, and
counterpart in months. they tried to speak after the u.s.u. s u.s. downed the chinese spy balloon. his counterpart did not take that call. they have not spoken in months. it s concerning that the pentagon chief cannot get his counterpart in china on the phone, not for lack of trying, because they re not picking up. sour relations there. jill, ukraine s head of military intelligence says russia s goal as they see it is to capture all of the donetsk and luhansk regions by the end of march. even if russia can accomplish that, do you think that that would satisfy vladimir putin? i think you d have to ask, brianna, what would satisfy vladimir putin? and, you know, if they really did take luhansk and dankonetsk