part of that for them is very much about getting some of these items back. since the start of this year and perhaps before, the ukrainian army has been planning a big counter—offensive to push the russians out of the areas they've been occupying. commentators in the west have been hugely optimistic. though when i interviewed president zelensky in kyiv a few months ago and spoke to him off camera about the counteroffensive, i noticed he was a great deal more cautious. well, it started a month ago, and i asked frank gardner, the bbc security correspondent, how it was going. well, i think there were some unrealistic expectations of the ukrainians, because so much had been given to them in terms of western hardware, western training, western financial help.