to professional cricket, playing in the women s big bash league in 2015. i ll have more for you in the next hour. let s get ore now on ukraine and the new russian offensive focussing on the east of the country. earlier today my colleague joanna gosling spoke with phillips o brien, who previously ran the scottish centre of war studies and is now a professor of strategic studies at the university of st andrews. she asked him about the impact of fighting on ukranians in the donbas region. i mean, it s a fascinating region, because it has been the heart of what had previously been talked about as russian speaking ukraine, and it was the industrial heartland as
that surrounds that activity. the key message during games time is, both across the west midlands region, particularly within birmingham, there is a no fly zone. drones are not welcome in the skies of birmingham and we have got assets that will ensure that drones will not fly during the games. in 2018, west midlands chief constable dave thompson went to the commonwealth games in australia on a fact finding mission about security. everybody s come here to have a great time, haven t they? but we also live in a world where we know there are global threats that we face so it s really important when we host the games in birmingham people want to come, want to enjoy it, have a fantastic time, feel secure but not feel security is too intrusive. 100 police and staff and dogs have been planning for the games in birmingham since 2017. today, dogs are on a practice round. minnie is amongst 55 police dogs being deployed to the games,
so yes, a huge, huge event for the region. really special. i mean, as paraswimming s onlyjust kind of coming - on to the commonwealth games, i think it will be really special - to a paraswimmer with the medals. so, yeah, it will be incredible, and hopefully if i get one, - to add it to my collection as well, it will be, yeah, so memorable. l we have had no events, let alone in this country, so i think we ve had a couple of national championships since then, but it s not been the same where people can come into the stands and, you know, cheer us on, so it will be amazing. obviously we have the temporary seating here, it looks like we can fit a lot of people in here, so i m sure the atmosphere is going to be amazing, and i think we are just looking forward to a good summer of sport. it will be the most expensive sports event it will be the most expensive sports event in it will be the most expensive sports event in the uk since london 2012. it is hoped event in the uk since londo
obviously conflict in this region, for eight years. yes. are you talking about completely repelling the russians from that area, would that be possible, what sort of support would ukraine need, what are you thinking? well, what it is, is, sort of get the russian army that is there and cause such attritional battle losses, that it becomes a combat ineffective force and that ultimately the war reaches negotiated settlement, or the russians have to make a very difficult choice about whether they want to build up a new army and continue for a long war, that is ultimately going to be russia s choice, what ukraine wants to do now, which is exactly what it did round kyiv, is to waste russian forces to such a degree they become difficult to maintain operations, and with the russian army at this size, that is a distinct possibility, if ukraine is given the kind of help it is asking for.