region, and said ukraine targeted an oil refinery and several fuel stations inside russia. the head of russia's electoral commission said there have been 20 incidents so far of people targeting ballot boxes. protests could continue on sunday when supporters of the late opposition figure alexei navalny are calling on people throughout russia to protest against president putin. meanwhile in the estonian town of narva, where many residents are russian, people crossed the border to vote in russia's presidential election. narva is one of only a handful of places where the border between the eu and russia is still open. bbc russian�*s oleg boldyrev sent this report. here in the estonian border town of narva lies the frontier between the western world and russia. across the river with its formidable fortress lies ivangorod, a town 170 kilometres away from st petersburg and this is one but a handful of places where the border between the eu and russia is still open. what is even more unusual is in this place and the surrounding region thousands of people are in fact russian citizens. this is the legacy of the soviet union break—up. in the 1960s and 1970s people were brought from the soviet union to work in local industries and after the collapse of the soviet union they failed to get estonian citizenship. this is a source of bitter arguments between the residents and estonian authorities but the fact is that these people have applied and got russian passports and this means they can go and vote in the presidential elections which are taking place right now. the voting station is just across the bridge. there were not any big queues on this side of the border and we tried to look for people who crossed and most people were turning away. they are clearly not willing to talk about this and afraid that if they admit that they had voted it would somehow mean trouble for them. but one woman named anna was not afraid to talk. translation: i voted for putin. he is closer to my viewpoint. i understand him. i have no doubts about him. i think every president should care for his country and his people. i see this in putin. i have a sister there, my husband's brother is there, our relatives are buried there, and to cut us apart is painful. we spoke to several more people who confirmed that they crossed the bridge and voted, supporting mr putin. they were choosing their words very carefully. if they say they support mr putin and his war in ukraine it will certainly mean trouble for them here in estonia. their votes didn't matter much for mr putin as his victory is a foregone conclusion. narva illustrates a very complex situation that the baltic states are in, nervously watching their giant neighbours to the east, russia. oleg boldyrev, bbc news, in narva, estonia. estonia has been one of the most vocal regional supporters of ukraine. those support efforts are led by estonia's prime minister kaja kallas, who is here in washington tojoin us presidentjoe biden for the annual gridiron club dinner. before that, prime minister kallas spoke to my colleague sumi somaskanda about russia's elections, the war in ukraine, and more. prime minister, thank you so much forjoining us here in the studio today. i want to start with the fact that russians are voting in an election that many consider to be neither free norfair and it will very likely secure another term for vladimir putin and russia. what does that mean for you and europe? i refuse to call it election. why they are playing this game, calling it an election, this is another question. it is to undermine actually our democracies and elections, saying that you have elections, we have elections. we know this is not an election butjust an appointment once again for putin. so what does it really change? in the short—term, probably nothing. after the reappointment there is going to be probably some difficult decisions that we are going to see on the russian side, for example, the mobilisation, probably also trying to raise taxes or getting some income to fund the war machine because of their budget which is in a very poor state and they can't raise capital outside. and at the same time, vladimir putin sees himself as emboldened and if you look at the eu and us approach, we have seen both impose more than 16,500 sanctions, $300 billion in assets frozen, but the russian economy has proven to be resilient. no, this is something that russia wants us to believe. this is the narrative that they want us to believe, that the sanctions are hurting you about not hurting us. it has china and india as buyers of oil. no, for example, gas. they have found buyers for only 5% of the gas that they used to sell to the european union. they can't sell the gas outside so they don't have that income or if we take the budget, over 20% of it is in deficit and they can't raise loans outside because of the sanctions. talk about your country's support for the ukraine, you've been one of the most vocal supporters. looking at the numbers, estonia recently sent an $80 million military aid package and you have said over the next four years your country will provide military assistance amounting to 0.25% of your gdp, but on the ground the war seems to have ground to a standstill with russia threatening to push through ukraine's lines. are you worried that it is now russia that is on the offensive and perhaps turning the tide in ukraine? the question is to ask how much aid we provide to ukraine so that they can defend themselves. we have made the calculation that if all the countries that are in the ramstein coalition, the countries supporting ukraine, could also announce this 0.25% of their gdp military aid for the next four years, we could outweigh russia. if you think about the defence budgets of the ramstein coalitions, they're 17 times bigger than russia's heavily inflated one. one question where has been disagreement on this the issue of boots on the ground. i know you've been asked about this quite a bit. the french president has raised it is one of the options on the table in the german chancellor said it won't happen, then the americans are also saying it won't happen. at what point would you deem it necessary for estonia to send boots on the ground to ukraine? first of all, i think it is something we are always doing, that we are trying to guess what russia is doing next, so maybe this is a good situation, let them guess now what we are doing next, so this ambiguity is actually good, that we discuss these issues, what we are able to do or not. i think we shouldn't rule out any options because if we say very certainly that this is not what we are going to do, then russia takes note. that, 0k, we can push this further. but when do you think it would be necessary to send troops? it is under discussion, what kind of help can we give. it is not that we are sending or discussing about ground forces. this is not the issue. the issue is training ukrainian soldiers on the ground, providing help on the ground so that they can defend themselves really on the ground. so there are different options but we have to be open to discuss those. one of the biggest players in support for ukraine is the us and you know further funding here has been caught up in domestic politics as well. some republicans we have spoken to are sceptical that there is a clear path to victory in ukraine. what is your message to them? there is a clear path to victory and first of all we have to have victory as a goal, otherwise no wars are won unless you have a victory as a goal. what does that look like? 0ur defence ministry has done a long paper on what does the victory look like. the peace strategy that president zelensky has come up with has all the elements. accountability, going back to its borders, by russia. all of it that i can't really list here but the point is we have to have a goal to win otherwise it is going to be more difficult for all of us. it is an election here in the us, you have said that the answer to donald trump's criticism of nato is to spend more and commit more, also to the war in ukraine. but you saw as well after he hosted the hungarian prime ministerviktor 0rban, he said in an interview that donald trump wouldn't spend another penny on ukraine if elected. what do you think of that? it is concerning, of course. what is the plans of the us? i think donald trump wants america to be number one in the world. when the us stops supporting ukraine, then the us lets russia win and then america will not be the first but the second in the world because we are against the powers like russia, iran, china, north korea. so you don't think he necessarily would follow through on that? i don't see into his mind. i hope not because i have talked to representatives on both sides of the aisle and they are very strongly in support of freedom, that they understand america is also about and this is also a fight forfreedom that is going on in ukraine. so that is the essence of the united states as well. we have heard from vladimir putin, if there is this continued strength of the war in ukraine and if the us and all other countries continue to contribute, he has continued to raise the possibility of a nuclear threat. is that when you take seriously or are worried about? of course we have to take everything seriously what he says. he has been threatening with nuclear war for quite some time but it has been only words. he is very good in sowing fear within our societies and really listening to what we are afraid of and giving you the fears you have, you are afraid of nuclear war so i am giving out this kind of signal. and the public goes, whoa, and we can't do that. it is a trap. a trap of self—deterrence because if we are afraid then we start to self—deter and that is what putin wants. so we also have to think what putin is afraid of and he is actually afraid of going to war with nato. he doesn't want that. we of course don't want that either. it is, to understand the messages that he is giving out so that we would be afraid and refrain from the decisions that we would otherwise make. very good to have you on bbc news today, thank you. thank you. after five months of war in gaza, pressure is growing inside israel for prime minister benjamin netanyahu to step down. protesters gathered in tel aviv on saturday to demand the return of israeli hostages and the resignation of mr netanyahu and his government. for the third saturday in a row, police used water cannon to disperse demonstrators. it comes just days after chuck schumer, the top democrat in the us senate, as well as the highest—ranking jewish member in the us government said mr netanyahu had "lost his way" and called for new elections in israel. mr schumer found sympathisers in satu rday�*s protests. my message today, according to what chuck schumer said this week in the american parliament, about how benjamin netanyahu is leading us to catastrophe and we must have an election as soon as possible otherwise we are all going to be in a bad, bad situation. talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and the release of hostages could resume sunday in qatar as fears remain over the prospect of a large—scale invasion of rafah. egyptian officials said hamas has presented a new proposal for a three—stage plan to end the fighting. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has called the proposal unrealistic, but agreed to send israeli negotiators to doha. meanwhile, a humanitarian aid shipment carrying 200 tonnes of food from cyprus has been unloaded onto gaza's shore. it's the first time in two decades that the sea route has been used. it's unclear, though, how the food will be distributed. the us charity world central kitchen, is carrying out the mission in co—operation with the united arab emirates. the charity says a second aid ship is ready to go from cyprus. speaking before a two—day trip to the middle east, german chancellor 0laf scholz urged israel to allow unlimited humanitarian aid into gaza. we have a difficult situation. it is necessary for aid to reach gaza on the larger scale. that is a topic i also have to talk about. we have concern about the further enhancement of military developments. in particular there is a danger that the large—scale offensive in rafah will result in many terrible civilian casualties which must be avoided at all costs. scholz also criticised israel's plans for an offensive in the southern gazan city of rafah, where more than a million displaced people are sheltering. it echoes the position of us presidentjoe biden. i spoke about that earlier with gina abercrombie—winstanley, president of the middle east policy council, and former us ambassador to malta. president biden has said the potential for that operation in rafah, will we know we have half of the palestinian population sheltering, he said it would be a red line. since then we have also heard from benjamin netanyahu appearing to green like that. where does that leave washington and president biden if that operation goes ahead? clear that the president _ operation goes ahead? clear that the president has - operation goes ahead? (l- that the president has growing impatience with the prime minister's unwillingness to put him in a difficult position. the president has been extraordinarily generous with his support to israel's need to re—establish safety for its citizens, and he has given support to the prime minister but has made clear his support is for israel, for the israeli people, not necessarily for the leadership. the prime minister is putting a difficult position. you have senator chuck schumer saying it will not fly for a long time. the secretary of state, even after the prime minister greenlight editor, said we have not seen the plan we need to see. that will ensure that civilians are protected if there is an incursion into rafah. it is very clear this may be a breaking point with regard to how the united states gives this support to the israeli leadership. i'm not at all suggesting it will be some amazing break or a complete cessation of weapons going to israel because of the fact our relationship is long—standing and important, but there will be a breaking point and how this is done.— this is done. what you think that could — this is done. what you think that could potentially - this is done. what you think that could potentially look l that could potentially look like? is there potentialfor that could potentially look like? is there potential for it to go past words, comments, the likes of which we have heard from senator chuck schumer and then praised by president biden? ~ ., then praised by president biden? ~ . ., , biden? we have had times in the ast with biden? we have had times in the past with the _ biden? we have had times in the past with the relationship - biden? we have had times in the past with the relationship has - past with the relationship has beenin past with the relationship has been in difficult times. president reagan stopped sending weapons to israel at one point. they had been difficulties with president bush senior, so i can get difficult and i would argue that perhaps a hardest grub with delay of things going to israel and the types of things we can send, these are always, and diplomatic protection in the un, these are all ways we could modify the relationship. thank you. now to haiti, where the us state department says it will arrange a charter flight for us citizens to evacuate from the city of cap—haitien. it comes with more than 350,000 people internally displaced in haiti by gang—related violence and the humanitarian crisis. meanwhile, police in haiti are trying to crack down on the gangs which have taken control of most of the capital, port—au—prince, and forced the prime minister to resign. the united nations has described the security situation as tense and volatile and warns that increasing numbers of children in haiti are going hungry as unrest continues. 0ur correspondent, will grant, is on the ground in haiti and he gave me the latest, a little earlier. it appears there was quite an extensive swat team operation in an area of the capital. that is where it is known to be one of the strongholds. 0f �*barbecue'. clearly they were trying to either capture him or kill him but they were successful in neither of those attempts. there were a number of casualties on the side of the gangs by all accounts but if anything it is going to beget more violence. we have heard today of more shooting in the capital and a quite fierce response from the gangs to the operation by the police. it sort of paints the picture of what is going on. a cat and mouse game is going on in the neighbourhoods where the police are obviously outnumbered by the gangs at this stage unless they get serious reinforcements in the coming weeks and months. let's turn to some important news around the world. history was made in the uk on saturday as vaughan gething was elected the first black leader of the welsh labour party. gething will also become europe's first black leader when he takes over as the first minister of wales next week, suceeding current leader mark drakeford. mr gething was born in zambia and is a former solicitor. niger's military government has revoked its defence accord with the united states, with immediate effect. the decade—long agreement allowed american troops stationed at a base in the desert to operate drones targeting islamist militant groups across the west african sahel region. but last year, niger's civilian president was ousted by the military, and washington cut off financial aid. a us delegation arrived in niger earlier this week hoping to resume a dialogue but instead inadvertently sparked a diplomatic row. india has announced the date of its national elections. voting will take place for several weeks, from the 19th of april. the current hindu—nationalist prime minister narendra modi is expected to win a third term. as the bbc�*s samira hussain reports, close to a billion people will have the chance to vote. india is the world's largest democracy and in these upcoming elections, there are 968 million eligible voters, in order for all of those people to be able to cast the ballot, voting will take place over several weeks there. it's going to be broken down into seven different phases. and the results of the elections are expected on the fourth ofjune. now, on the one hand, you have prime minister narendra modi and his party, the bjp. they are looking very strong coming into these elections. the country's main opposition party, the congress, is trying to mount a counter to the might of the bjp, and they have aligned themselves with more than two dozen other smaller political parties to try and push back against the bjp government. but so far, they haven't really been able to gain much traction for the prime minister, who is seeking his third consecutive term in office, they are looking rather, the bjp party is looking to increase the number of seats that they already have in parliament. and part of the strategy for them to do that is to concentrate their efforts in the southern part of their country where they haven't been able to make inroads against some very strong regional parties. now, these elections are not only going to be watched by people within the country, it is certainly going to be an election that is watched by countries around the world. from one election to another, because here in the us, donald trump made his first major campaign stop, since becoming the presumptive republican nominee for president. mr trump spoke at a rally to endorse republican 0hio senate candidate bernie moreno in a primary race. 0hio, once seen as a swing state, has shifted to the right over the years after voters chose trump in 2016 and 2020. mr moreno, seen here on the left, is running against matt dolan who has the backing of the state's established conservative base. he's spent millions of his own money on his campaign. the highly anticipated senate election is an important one and mrtrump's support could possibly propel mr moreno to victory in the primary. while backing mr moreno, donald trump also made his case for another term in the white house. a brilliant, very brilliant wall street analysts said the only thing good right now about our economy as the stock market and the only reason that's good is because people think that trump is going to be elected president and if they ever thought that he wasn't, you would end up with a crash of the likes of which we haven't seen since 1929. so they can take that the way they want but i happen to agree. my colleague, carl nasman, was at the rally, and sent this report. donald trump, boarding his private plane and getting ready to leave 0hio, after an hour—long speech, his first rally since essentially wrapping up the republican presidential nomination. this address going hard on immigration and the border, criticising current presidentjoe biden for what he says his failed immigration policies. trump said during the rally that if he were elected this countrywould see its biggest deportation of migrants in its history. ohio is trump country and this is a state that is increasingly red, one that trump has won in the past two presidential elections so he doesn't necessarily need to be campaigning here but he is here to support his preferred candidate in the republican senate race, bernie moreno, a controversialfigure, towards the far right of the spectrum, similar views to trump on immigration and he said he would support eliminating all us military aid to ukraine. this is a closely watched race because if the republicans are to retake the senate seat in ohio, they could likely retake control of the senate. it would be good news for the republicans and so donald trump hoping to rally his base here in ohio, to not only return to the white house but to return control of congress back to the republicans. before we go, i want to bring you some incredible live pictures from iceland. a volcano in iceland has erupted for the fourth time since december, spewing lava into the air and sending fountains of molten rock soaring from fissures in the ground. police declared a state of emergency for the area, which is just south of the capital, reykjavik. the nearby fishing town of grindavik, where some residents had returned following earlier eruptions is being evacuated once again. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. at last, some beautiful spring sunshine for much of the uk on saturday, including here in cumbria. it wasn't long before we saw the cloud thicken from the west before outbreaks of rain moving northwards and eastwards. this will come down as rain over wales for a time into central and southern england and eastern england so a soggy start to the day but it is a mild one, milder than it was on saturday morning. temperatures between 5—11 degrees. double figures in the south still. a mild start of the day, more sunshine on offer throughout the day on sunday but also a few showers in the afternoon. it's a very wet start for parts of southern england. the heavy rain clears over the north sea. here it should brighten up by lunchtime and perhaps more sunshine developing. sunny spells elsewhere. coastal and hill fog for a time across the west. it will cloud over northern ireland in the afternoon. outbreaks of rain here, some of the shower is heavy and thundery the northern england but mild again, we could see 17 celsius in east anglia as we head through the afternoon. looking to the west again as we had through sunday night and into monday, various weather fronts approaching. these are fizzling out. there will be rain in the north and west throughout the night and then it is a bit of patchy cloud as we head through much of monday. for most of us on monday it will stay dry, clouding over, outbreaks of rain over northern ireland and western scotland by the end of the day. the air is still mild. again, temperatures will peak in the mid teens for many. keeping that mild air heading through monday and tuesday with that southwesterly wind. on tuesday we are likely to see more heavy rain across the north and the west. so for northern ireland and the western scotland. elsewhere i think it'll stay largely dry as we had throughout the day. a lot of the cloud will break up and we will see brighter spells developing. all eyes out towards the southwest by the time we get to the end of tuesday because this rain could cause some problems perhaps on wednesday. but the air is still very mild on tuesday, 12—16 celsius. it could turn cooler as we head through wednesday and thursday. it stays unsettled, more rain forecast at times. bye— bye. style voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. this week, we're heading into space to find out how we'll live, work and eat on the moon. we have space homes and a spacewoman... all of a sudden, it clicked in my head. "wow, the international space station "is a submarine in space." ..moon bots and moon dust. the surface is fine and powdery. i can pick it up loosely with my toe. you know, i think i've seen that chap somewhere before. jfk: we choose to go - to the moon in this decade and do the other things, i not because they are easy,