eurovision fever heats up with 16 countries taking to the stage in liverpool later for the second semifinal. hello and welcome to the programme. we start with the war in ukraine and confirmation from the british defence secretary that storm shadow cruise missiles are being sent to ukraine. the missiles have a long range capability and are typically launched from the air. the move prompted an instant response from the kremlin saying the decision would require an adequate response from the russian military. we will hear from of the from the russian military. we will hearfrom of the un s humanitarian coordinator in ukraine but first we have ben wallace in the house of commons. in december i informed the house i was developing options to respond to russia s continued aggression and today i can confirm the uk is sending storm shadow missiles to ukraine, storm shadow is a long range conventional only precision strike capability and it compliments the long range system already gifte
the rate at which uk prices are rising has slowed for a second month, but the cost of living is still close to a ao year high. ambulance workers in the uk willjoin nurses in taking strike action next month, piling huge pressure on hospital bosses. let s start in ukraine, where a helicopter crash has killed the country s interior minister, denys monastyrsky. he s the highest profile ukrainian casualty since the war began. the crash happened east of the capital kyiv in the town of brovary. at least 1a people have died. first, let s hearfrom the ukrainian president. a tragedy happened near kyiv. a helicopter crash claimed the life of the minister of the internal affairs of ukraine, his colleagues and helicopter cruel or found near a can or garden. 1a ukrainian families lost their loved ones today and many more families are losing daily because of the war near a kindergarten. so let s take you through what we know. nine people were on board the plane three from the interio
we begin in sri lanka where gotabaya rajapaksa has sent a letter formally handing over power to his prime minister, but stopping short of a resignation. our correspondent is in colombo with the latest development. we just had a statement from the office of president gotabaya rajapaksa, somebody that the protesters behind me, they have spent months camping out here in the centre of colombo, desperate for president gotabaya rajapaksa to resign and they blame him for this country s economic woes but we have had a statement from his office and it doesn t look like it is very clear exactly what he is planning to do. i have got the statement here. effectively he doesn t resign in this statement and he says that he is transferring the presidency to ranil wickremesinghe who is currently the prime minister, while he is out of the country, so this is a man who promised he would resign but he hasn t done that yet, and this is now leaving even more uncertainty, we are reading to the stat