jonathan charles is back with us geopolitical insight advisor, specialising in russia and the countries around it and a former bbc correspondent in moscow and ukraine markets in moscow and ukraine quick to react and no surprise markets quick to react and no surprise that the rouble has sunk. it surprise that the rouble has sunk. . , , ., ., sunk. it hasn t been doing that well for several sunk. it hasn t been doing that well for several weeks - sunk. it hasn t been doing that well for several weeks and - well for several weeks and months and it was inevitable with uncertainty and that is what we have with russia now, it has exacerbated a trend and we have seen that fall in the rouble. untilwe we have seen that fall in the rouble. until we know what is going to happen, can vladimir putin reassert that sense of strongman rule which at least is certainty, it may not be very nice, but at least it is certainty, then there will be questions about the economy, about the roub
after more than 100 days, 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 promise to deliver it in three or seven days as some pundits are saying now, that the russian special military operation has stalled and is not progressing at the pace that was initially envisaged. but the progress is being made, that s clear. one of their reasons for the so called slow pace is that we are not targeting civilian infrastructure and there is deliberately we are only hitting military targets and it takes time, we are not doing carpet bombing or anything else. but the progress is there, that s for sure. ambassador, i have to say, you are the most senior russian official whom i ve heard say that the initial operation stalled, that the operation is going slow. is that your recognition that the initial plan to seize kyiv and to install a
i m @annitabbc or you can use the hashtag #bbcyourquestions. borisjohnson s standards adviser says there is a legitimate question over whether the british pm broke the ministerial code after getting fined for partygate. but his colleagues still insist he won t need to resign. these are significant issues but we have had range of accountability and transparency around it. i don t think this ends in a leadership challenge. tech firms are urged to do more to make it safer for women and girls to be online. from fine china to fish and chips we go on a whistle stop tour to see what merchandise has been created hello and welcome, if you re watching in the uk or around the world. within the past 2a hours, both the us and germany have announced that they re to send new weapons systems to ukraine. germany has this morning promised kyiv an air defence system the iris t system which chancellor olaf scholz says will enable ukraine to defend an entire city against russian air attac
for its budget deficit on western donorfarms. for its budget deficit on western donor farms. that money has to keep pouring into ukraine to keep the economy stable. it is not business as usual in ukraine that it won t be for a very, very long time. and at the moment, unless you can ukraine can make progress on the battlefield it means the economy without that western money will struggle and we don t know how long this is going to last. we must bet on the fact that even with the instability in russia this is still going to be a very, very long warfor ukraine and still going to be a very, very long war for ukraine and with lasting impact on the economy. jonathan, thank you so much. jonathan, thank you so much. jonathan charles with his insight into what is happening insight into what is happening in ukraine and russia. to greece now where the new democracy party has won a landslide victory in sunday s general election. securing nearly 40% of the vote the biggest margin for conserv
forces who from day one deployed units, including heavy armour and artillery around residential areas and buildings like schools, kindergartens, medical facilities, they continue to do it for they shell their own residential areas and their are evidence and testimony of prisoners of warfor ukraine. yeah. you ve been saying for many weeks now that the devastations of cities like mariupol is the result of ukraine shelling its own people at its own buildings and its own cities. i will leave our audience to judge for themselves whether that claim has any credibility. i just wonder whether you believe that the ukrainians