and a funfair at a local park. and time now for 10 seconds of chimpanzee cuteness. this is the moment vanilla sees the outdoors for the first time after 28 years in a medicine lab. thankfully, she is now in her animal sanctuary home. you are all caught up now. see you later. voice—over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. president zelensky, thank you so much for your time. i'd like to begin by asking you about the counteroffensive. how is it going? ukraine, your deputy defence minister has admitted it will be difficult to win back land in this counteroffensive. russia has done everything in its power to stop this offensive. how do you measure the success of this counteroffensive? the americans have made clear how they measure the success of this. they want you to make as many gains on the battlefield so you are in a stronger position when you get the negotiating table. but, mr president, are you feeling that the pressure from your partners that they expect results and results quickly? the americans say that they will stay with ukraine until the very end. do you believe them? this whole phrase that, "we will stay with ukraine for as long as it takes, as long as it takes," what does that mean ultimately? when i speak to military experts, for example, they say, sure, weapons are arriving in ukraine, but it is being done on an ad hoc basis. that there is really no long—term strategy when it comes to ukraine. let's just look at some of the things you need. the f—16s, for example, us officials are now saying it could take months for ukraine to get those f—16s, some officials are saying it could take 6—18 months. mr president, the nato secretary general, jens stoltenberg, has said that ukraine will not be invited to join at the summit at vilnius. just your reaction to that? but, mr president, what is the endgame for you? i know that you have got your peace plan there, but what does the endgame look like for you? are you willing to go to the negotiating table? because ultimately that is the indication from the americans, that they want some sort of success or gains from the battlefield to have you at the negotiating table in a position of power. are you worried that if vladimir putin is too far cornered that that could also become dangerous, that he could use nuclear weapons, for example? president biden has said the threat of the russian president using tactical nuclear weapons is real. mr president, i also want your reaction to the ukraine recovery conference in the uk. just your message to that conference? and your message to the people of the uk? and, finally, will there be an election in ukraine next year? president zelensky, thank you so much for your time. hello there. much of the country, particularly england and wales, was very warm and muggy on wednesday, but a band of rain pushing in off the atlantic has introduced much fresher air. and for thursday, most of us will be in that cooler, fresher air mass, but it will be bright with sunny spells and scattered showers. there's that rain band, then slow to clear from the southeast through this morning. so it'll start off rather grey, cloudy with further outbreaks of rain free standing in the southeast, eventually clearing away as we reach lunchtime and that willjoin in to the bright skies that most of the country will start the day with. into the afternoon, a bit of cloud bubbling up, allowing one or two showers. most of these will be across the north and the west of scotland. they'll be more of a breeze here, too, but it'll be a cooler day across the board, 15 to 21 or 22 degrees across the south and feel noticeably fresher gci’oss southern areas. then as we move through thursday night and the clear skies, temperatures fall away, but we'll see further cloud and showers across northern and western scotland and thicker cloud pushing into northern ireland later on. but a cooler night to come out of towns and cities will be in single digits. so this is the picture then for friday, we start off dry across eastern areas, but this next low pressure system and its weather fronts will continue to push into northern and western areas through the day. so a nice, bright but cool start to central and eastern parts of the country. soon the clouds will tend to build in and spread to all areas and it turns wetter for scotland, northern ireland. then some rain getting into northern and western england and wales, but tending to stay dry across eastern england until after dark. mostly cloudy though, limited brightness temperatures again mid to high teens in the north, high teens low 20s in the south. that rain band clears right across the country during the course of friday night. the rain clears in the southeast saturday morning, and then it's bright but breezy. plenty of sunshine, low pressure sitting to the north of scotland will bring windy weather to scotland with showers or longer spells of rain here and again, temperatures around orjust below the seasonal norm. but we could be up to 23 or 2a in the southeast with a lot of sunshine here. sunday, low pressure shifting to the north of the uk again stays windy across scotland with outbreaks of rain or showers. some of these heavy in the west of scotland, fewer showers the further south that you are on some areas in the southeast staying completely dry with sunny spells, but quite a noticeable breeze. and again, temperatures will range from around 15 to 22 celsius. live from washington, this is bbc news. a russian missile strike hits a popular restaurant in eastern ukraine, killing 11. questions continue to swirl about the future of the wagner mercenary group's operations in africa. and making the case for �*bidenomics�*: the us president delivers a major policy speech aimed at winning over voters. hello. thank you for