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and yet the country's describes this as a provocation. >> some russians are saying we see putin was absolutely right and their plan was to come to russia from the very beginning. ♪ >> ukraine's army claims it now controls a thousand square kilometers of russian territory. after the launch of its surprise offensive last week. today president putin has vowed to kick ukraine out of russia. we will have the very latest. also on the program, the united states orders a guided missile submarine and an aircraft carrier group into the middle east amid fears of an escalating conflict in the region. we will be taking a look at the challenges facing the u.k. prime minister after two weeks of rioting in his first few weeks

as leader. greece appeals for international help to tackle wildfires threatening neighborhoods close to the capital, athens. it is the biggest incursion into russian territory since the second world war. ukraine's commander-in-chief says his troops control about a thousand square kilometers of russian land in the kursk region afr their surprise attack a week ago. russia has told about 180,000 of its citizens in the area to leave their homes as ukraine presses on with that offensive. the russian leader, president putin has promised to kick all ukrainian troops out of his country. or russia editor steve rosenberg reports from roscoe. >> a music video from the russian military. allegedly showing it targeting ukrainian troops who crossed the border.

it is presented like a blockbter. in reality, this is a huge problem for russia. >> the governor of russia's kursk region put it in figures. he told vladimir putin ukrainian soldiers had seized 28 settlements in his region. the kremlin leader cut him off. leave the numbers to the military, he said. >> the main task is with our ministry of defense and that is to force the enemy from our territory. our adversary will receive a fitting response and without doubt all our objectives will be met. >> has ukrainian troops have moved in, residents have moved out. officials say more than 120,000 people have been evacuated in kursk region. thousands more in the neighboring region of belgrade.

there are fears of a ukrainian incursion there too. what is happening is huge. for the first time in more than 80 years, foreign troops are fighting on russian soil. and yet the country's leadership describes this as a provocation. a terrorist attack. . the kremlin still avoids using the word war as if to tell the people there is no need to panic. >> on the streets of moscow, no shock. just resignation about ukraine's offensive. >> i'm not surprised. it is a border area. this war has been goin on for some time. >> what we all want is peace. and like the quickest solution of this conflict. >> in the meantime, these volunteers are trying to do something. in moscow, they have organized a collection of food and clothes for the evacuees. >> there are people who lost

their homes, they need shelter, they need food, they need supplies. >> it was their country that invaded ukraine. russians are now having to deal with unforeseen consequences. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. >> we can speak about this to michael who is a global affairs analyst and senior fellow at the atlantic council think tank. thank you for being with us. this is clearly a bold move, this counteroffensive by the ukrainians, but is it one that can backfire? is it a bit of a gamble perhaps? >> absolutely it could backfire. the numbers are absolutely mind-boggling. 1000 square kilometers at least. that is equal in size to the city of dallas, texas. a very big city. about 44 sentiments -- 44 settlements. numbers are trending up to a

quarter of million evacuees in russia. my big fear knowing what we do with the russian track record and playbook is they may retaliate not in conventional military ways but by something very disastrous. deliberate accident at the nuclear power plant which is in russian control. the other day we saw smoke rising from there which concerned the iaea. that -- you can expect nothing like that to happen if the ukrainians pressed further on. >> you are saying there could be dire consequences. what do you think the ukrainian aim in all of this is? clearly it is a counteroffensive. maybe it is going to boost the morale of their troops and their people. militarily, what do you think is the aim? there has been a lot of talk about ukraine hoping to draw in some of the russian troops from other areas.

>> a couple points. i reached out to ukrainian ambassadori know very well. they came back and said we have no talking points on this. to me that indicates the ukrainians are controlling the message very carefully within the office of the president and the ministry of defense. i think with the ukrainians are trying to do here is gain some pr points not only within ukrainians. i've been based in ukraine for most of war. there was a weariness taking hold there and a desire to end the war. but also scoring pr points in russia. putin is very humiliated. he is very angry. the press conference he held, he was using a kind of russian slang only angry people use. i noticed he was reading from scribbled notes. ukrainians if they are wise will hold onto what they have and use

that as a bargaining chip using the pows they have. using the seized territory to negotiate an end to the war. it is much easier to negotiate with that seized territory than without it. >> what do you think the western allies of ukraine make of this? will they be a little nervous perhaps? one wonders whether there were told in advance about these plans for this incursion inside russia. will western hardware, tanks and so on, british tanks, american tanks be used in this? >> this is clearly a sophisticated operation. intelligence was involved number one and secondly the ukrainians do want to send a message back to the capitals. berlin, paris, london, washington that they are good fighters and they can use western support very effectively. let's be honest. it has not gone well for them on the front lines. they really leveraged the

element of surprise. they spotted a vulnerability and they went for it. again, it is mind boggling how little internal security there is in these border regions. i was reading the ukrainian military telegram channels. they basically described the incursion as a walthrough the park. they encountered russian soldiers drinking coffee and taking it easy. one last point. there is no visible resistance here either from the russian troops or from the general population. that might tell you something as well. > what to the ukrainians do now? do they stick or twist? do they push further order they hold onto the territory they have got? >> military experts would tell you the further you push, the more complicated it gets because your supply lines get stretched. it is difficult to get a -- to do everything from service vehicles to feed t troops. the wise thing is to try to hold onto to what they have right now. it is a sizable chunk of

territory and push the russians to the negotiating table. i think that time space is very limited. legitimate fears that the russians could do something in an unconventional fashion that could be pretty scary not only to the region but globally potentially. >> thank you for your analysis. senior fellow of the atlantic council and global affairs analyst. thank you for your time. now, the pentagon u.s. defense secretary has ordered a guided missile submarine to the middle east. he has told an aircraft carrier group to sail to the area more quickly. the deployment of additional fighter jets and warships was announced earlier this month as washington seeks to bolster its presence following an escalation in violence between israel and iran and its aies hamas and

hezbollah. meanwhile, leaders of the u.k., france and germany have been renewing calls for the immediate resumption of cease-fire negotiations saying the fighting must end and all hostages must be released. israel says it will send a team of negotiators to any new talks. hamas says mediators should simply implement the truce peace plan put forward by u.s. president biden last month. a sticking point appears to be an israeli insistence displaced palestinians are screened as they return to the north of gaza. let's speak to jazmine who is a political analyst and former middle east advisor at the u.s. department of defense. first of all, let's talk about the prospect of any talks, any cease-fire. these talks have been going around in circles and going nowhere for months. you have any optimism now we could be any closer to some sort of truce? >> thanks for having me.

i don't have a lot ooptimism right now. i have not had optimism in a while. it has been difficult to see why u.s. statements, public statements over the last few months have been so optimistic's while we know behd the scenes the two parties, hamas and the israelis remain quite a bit far apart. that gap was -- there was an attempt to bridge it a little bit when president biden stood at the white house and laid out a plan he described as an israeli plan, called on hamas to accept it. there was a subsequent un security council resolution that called on hamas to accept it. hamas accepted it and know the israelis have added the -- benjamin netanyahu by his negotiators have added additional demands as well as of course they have assassinated the political leader of hamas involved in the negotiations. for that reason, hamas is saying

there is no point in us going to doha. there is no point in us going to egypt or whatever place you want us to go to continue these talks. the deal that we agreed to, that president biden laid out is not the deal that is on the table. they are calling on the mediators to provide a roadmap to implement that deal that was laid out by president biden. not the current one that is on the table. >> what about the fears of a wider war in the middle east? that the conflict will escalate to involve iran and lebanon and so on and that i ran could launch a retaliatory strike against israel after the attack on the hamas political leader in iran? >> the hope -- the mediators thatave been trying so hard over the last few months to bring the two parties closer together on the cease-fire negotiations have in doing that

because the u.s. and leaders in the region have been hoping that if there were to be a cease-fire deal, a release of the hostages and a cease-fire and a pause in the operations, that that would lower the temperature in the region and bring the warring parties a step further back from this all out regional confrontation everyone is so afraid of. unfortunately because the cease-fire negotiations have stalled so many times, that tension between iran and israel, between israel and hezbollah, the tit-for-tat has oy continued. contributing more and more until we find ourselves at what feels like a breaking point in the region. as you mentioned at the top of this interview that the u.s. has sent more military hardware and more military assets to the region.

israel is on high alert. it is looking like there might be somewhat eminent response from the iranians. >> what is the american purpose in sending that hardware you mentioned to the middle east? what message do you think the united states are trying to send? >> the big message they are trying to send is don't do anything stupid. ey are trying to tell the iranians, look, we are here. we are in defense of israel. if you do something so significant that causes the israelis to retaliate in a way that escalates of this, we are here and we are supporting israel. don't really want to do this. that is the message and that is coupled with diplomatic efforts behind the scenes where the phones are ringing off the hook between the u.s. and regional partners trying to tell iran we know you are going to have to do something but don't do something

so audacious that it brings us to the point of no return. >> thank you for being with us. political analyst and former middle east advisor at the u.s. defense department. thank you for your time. around the world and across the u.k., you are watching bbc news. ♪

♪ >> now, sir keir starmer has been in charge of the united kingdom for over five weeks and the rights that swept the country for two weeks have post the first direct challenge to the country's new prime minister. even after restoring order, keir starmer faces the bigger challenge of diffusing the issues that underlie that unrest. concern over immigration for example is on the rise again. immigrants make an easy target for the far-right when jobs are scarce and services are

overstretched. today, the home office recorded 703 people arriving in the u.k. on sunday. that is the highest number of daily crossings since sir keir starmer became prime minister and entered 10 downing street. with his practical options for curbing english channel crossings limited, it seems that sir keir starmer is facing many challenges ahead. let's talk about some of them now. we are going to be joined by dominic who is the former attorney general for england and wales under a conservative government and andrew fisher who is the former executive director of policy for the labor i'll see under jeremy corbyn -- labor policynder jeremy corbyn. dominic, to you first of all, you could say it was a baptism of fire for keir starmer although he was -- public prosecutions in 2011 when you were in government. how well do you think he survived that test?

>> i think he survived that test very well indeed. he applied exactly the same process that was applied in 2011 namely the absolute necessity of bringing rioters to justice quickly and dealing with them in a way that sends a clear deterrent message to other people not to repeat the behavior and i think it has worked. i think it is quite clear that has happened. from that point of view, the immediate problem has been dealt with. it still of course leaves wider issues behind these rights and what to do about them. it seems to me he acted entirely probably and the government rallied. not withstanding via criminal justice system in this country is in pretty bad state but they were able to pokestops out. . in my view it was successful in bringing rioting to an end. >> do you share that view?

it was pretty rapid justice, wasn't it? designed to be a deterrent and it seems to have worked. tough sentences handed out very quickly. people being arrested and whisked intoourt very quickly in basically a criminal justice system that has been horribly delayed for many years with many people normally facing months before they come to trial. >> there are still huge backlogs in the court system as dominic alluded to. you have to as dominic said deal swiftly with something as urgent as what we saw. incredibly intimidating rioting going on across u.k. by these minority -- very small minority of racist thugs. i think it was right that happened. hopefully that is behind us. the deterrent as dominic said has worked and we can move on to tackle some those issues which include the whipping up of hatred and division, the misinformation that went out

after the tragic killings in southpt and i think the media, the social media and politicians have to look at themselves. how they have whipped up this tension over migration. over ethnic minorities. over issues we have come to describe as culture wars that has fed this a renewed surge of racism. as i say, it is only a small minority. it is obviously incredibly intimidating for the people on the receiving end of the hatred and violence. >> can i ask you about one of those issues we mentioned in the introduction about immigration, small boat crossings that rishi sunak of course for him it was a central policy in the electric -- the election campaign. shadows secretary has been criticizing the new government. saying where is this command labor was promising? we have had several hundred people coming in one day. what do you think the new government will do about all the?

>> there are some underlying issues i agree witwhat has just been said that this has been whipped up by social media. it is a very small number of thugs and racists who have misbehaved in this particular fashion. as i think with most social phenomenon, there are underlying anxieties within communities relating to immigration which are not being addressed. governments say they are going to do something about it. and then it appears that they are not. and of course, while social media can undoubtedly distort, no forms of media or propaganda can produce a story where none exists. the reality is not i think so much the number of people coming in by a regular means on little boats which statistically is a small percentage of total immigration, but the fact that

immigration levels have been extremely high. that may be a good thing, but if it is a good thing, politicians are not going out and explaining why it is. politicians on the whole are saying it is a bad thing and they are going to do something abou it and then nothing happens. this is in fact not just about the last conservative government. it applies as much to the labour party in recent years. so policy view has got to be taken about what is in our national interest on immigration. and that has got to be explained. there are issues i think in -- of a breakdown in trust with politicians. politicians say one thing and then they don't deliver. the actors in echo of the public but they don't intend to do anything about it. > i want to go back to andrew fisher with your labour party expertise to tell you about some of the stories we have been reading in the newspapers. splits within the downing street high command particularly

between two of sir keir starmer's key advisors. what do you make of those reports and is that true do you think? is that damaging for the new government? >> i think when steve graves was brought in as keir starmer's chief of staff and he was leader of the opposition, it was because his team in westminster were seen as a boys club and it needed a stronger handle in the -- hand on the tiller. at that time morgan mcsweeney went to labor hq to work on the party election trilogy which he obviously did very successfully. you have that vision of clearly defined roles. sue graves was the chief of staff in westminster. . will give mcsweeney was running the election campaign. since labor has become the government, those two are back working together. clearly there seems to be some tensions. i have heard that myself. so what i think needs to happen

-- it is normal for advisors to disagree. for cabinet ministers to disagree and have differences of opinion on strategy. that is politics the danger for keir starmer is. if that becomes dysfunctional and there are not here -- not clear lines. whose job ends where and who is in charge of who. getting those things bedded in and sorted out will make things easier. they have only been in power for five weeks. some of that is being worked through. it has been a period of high tension. there are a few teething problems. . i'm sure it will be sorted out. > we have got a few seconds. i want to ask you. we are hearing keir starmer who had postponed his holiday because of the rights has canceled it altogether. i su announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by...

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