when he went in from ukraine in to russia, how he was welcomed by the russian military. along the way, there had to be higher ups. they saw this as a catalyst that could result in the removal of putin. putin has hit work cut out for him. he has to solidify his support with the military and an appearance that he s in charge. neil: what did you make of the former vice president, mike pence, showing up in ukraine today meeting with president zelensky today? a lot of people are saying in this vacuum, zelensky hats been very aggressive firing on all fronts literally to take advantage of the russian absence there or the russian power vacuum there. what do you make of it? it s excellent that vice president pence went. i think certainly as more american leadership, i ve been twice, goes to kyiv and meets with president zelensky, it emboldens the narrative and the support of the united states.
today, these attacks are normalised. thank you very much forjoining us, thank you. the polish president has made a visit to kyiv where he said that mercenaries from the wagner group could pose a danger to poland. he said of 8000 wegner mercenaries there. 0ur correspondent in warsaw, sarah ransford has details on the continued fallout from the weekend s short lived rebellion in russia. if the wagner group was relocated from russia to belarus, which of course is a big step closer towards a country like poland and to the baltic states. the president here has been talking about that being a security threat, the government is talking about increasing security at the belarusian border. the president was saying, what s the reason for
were almost inevitable. another air raid siren, but the rescue work goes on regardless. andrew harding, bbc news, kramatorsk. nataliya gumenyuk is a ukrainian journalist and co founder of the reckoning project, collecting testimonies on the ground in ukraine that can be used in court as evidence of war crimes. shejoined us from kyiv, thanks very much for being with us. you ve been to this restaurant previously in kramatorsk, describe it for people who have never been there. so who have never been there. sr determine the course is a who have never been there. srs determine the course is a town of almost 200,000 people kramatorsk, most of left but there are still some people there. it s one of the safest places towards the front line. so six hours away from kyiv, you can still be there, but. so
the long awaited counteroffensive is underway. the announcement came during a surprise visit from canada s prime minister to kyiv. officials say that their forces made marginal gains in the eastern part of the country. and the white house what is calling the largest pride month celebration ever today, in the face of a spike in discriminatory legislation, biden announced this week initiatives designed to protect lgbtq plus americans from war attacks. more american voices after the break. fter the break. trelegy for copd.
this is bbc news. it s newsday. hi there, thank you for being with us. we start with the notable increase in military activity, in southern and eastern ukraine. the ukrainian armed forces say they ve launched several attacks, but the russians insist those attacks have been repelled. russian officials are claiming that their troops have succeded in blocking attacks around donetsk, luhansk, and zaporizhzhia the ukrainian attack on donetsk was said to be on a significant scale. but the eastern city of bakhmut is described as the epicentre of hostilities , where ukraine s ground forces are said to be moving forward strongly against russian positions. in a moment, we ll have the latest from moscow but first to kyiv, and our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse.