ceasefires to repair the grids. you're talking about the humanitarian situation in eastern europe, ukraine and you're saying the pro—moscow separatists are responsible for this, but i have to put it to you that there are also complaints about ukrainian activity which has led to what the russian foreign ministry warns could turn into a humanitarian catastrophe. there have been criticisms of the illegal blockades by ukrainian activists that prevent supplies going to civilians in rebel—held territory, that's one of the accusations, and ukraine in march imposed a temporary freeze on rail and road cargo links to breakaway enclaves, which has meant that civilians are suffering in the rebel—held areas, they're not getting the supplies they need. i hope people in the west already understood that whatever russian ministry of foreign affairs is saying is not necessarily always the truth unfortunately. moreover, what russian information sources are bringing on the public. that's also quite frequently something that is made up.

that is something that we have to deal with in our everyday life. what you are asking about... the ukrainian government had to make a response to the actions of the russian federation when the so—called puppet, basically, authorities that are installed on the occupied territories by the russian federation on us, they expropriated 26 ukrainian enterprises that are on the territory. coalmines and steel? yes, operating within ukrainian law but they expropriated that so after that we couldn't continue working with them. moreover, the russian federation decided to recognise the so—called ids produced on the local ground in the territory not controlled by the ukraine.

and they introduced the ruble as the only currency. so the ukrainian government unfortunately had to react with the measure that we have taken. the blockade. but civilians might be suffering as a result. again the united nations commissioner for human rights in a report looking at the situation in the ukraine to may this year has said he's worried about restrictions on the freedom of movement is because it means internally displaced people, the idps, entitled to pensions and social payments, living in rebel—held areas in eastern ukraine, they have to renew their registration in government—held territory but it's so difficult for them to do that because they are subjected to long queues at exit and entry checkpoints, it exposes civilians to degrading conditions for protracted periods and to the risk of death from shelling.

you're also responsible for civilians suffering? over the last half of year we have extremely improved the whole registration process of the internally displaced people. but not until may this year. he's talking about this happening until may this year. and the ukraine right now has more than 1.6 million of internally displaced people, think about that, that number. we are taking care of all the payments. if they are internally placed, people who live on the non—occupied territory who have actually fled their homes, they are fully paid all the pensions and social care. there are thousands and thousands of them not receiving their pensions and social payments? these are idps who would not receive the payments and that's been confirmed by the recent eu

report and i'm sure... there aren't long queues for people trying to get their pensions or social payments anymore, is that what you're saying? there are no queues, there are queues on the grounds where people are crossing the touchline from the occupied territory to the ukrainian territory and backwards. that's normal with regard to security checks first and foremost they are going through and unfortunately the militants are not allowing us to open up additional crossing points. all the humanitarian suffering for the civilians is all the fault of the separatists and russia, nothing to do with ukrainian activity? we wouldn't have had the people suffering if it were not for the russian aggression to the territory of the ukraine and if it was not for russia pouring in all the weapons and soldiers and training those militants on the territory of our country. moscow says of course it doesn't have troops inside eastern ukraine. that unfortunately is the lie they are trying to build their case on.

the fact is you have this long border with russia, you're near neighbour, and when it comes to looking at the medium and the long—term, you're going to have to get on, you've got people who have got ties, large number of people in the ukraine speak russian as their native language, and yet here you are saying you would like to pursue nato membership at some stage, which would be like a red rag to a bull to russia. is it wise for you to be throwing fuel on the relationship like this and adding fuel to the fire of the conflict in eastern ukraine in this way? russia has attacked ukraine specifically in the time when ukraine had a non—aligned status. when ukrainian legislation said we're not going to join any political or defence or security alliance with anybody else and they will stay neutral. it did not protrude the russian federation from actually not attacking ukraine even though we had all the basis for our positive relationship,

we had the strategic agreement of partnership with russian federation, moreover the russian federation was one of the guarantors of the ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity on the basis of the budapest memorandum when ukraine was the third major nuclear power in the world that gave up its nuclear weapons. who's pushing you to drop your non—aligned status and say come and join us in nato? nato is not asking you to join, you know that's something that's not going to happen for a very long time, if ever. it is the response of our politicians to the ukrainian society, the understanding of the ukrainian society that first and foremost right now we have to concentrate on being capable to defend ourselves. so you want to join nato? and once we are ready, once we are integrated functionally into nato and interoperable, we will be able to submit our membership application. president poroshenko says

there will be a referendum onjoining nato, is that so? at some point but first and foremost we have to understand we need to do a lot of homework before we're ready to submit the application. similarly, your portfolio, european integration, ukraine, you would like to at some stage join the european union again, eu commissionerjean—claude juncker said that wouldn't happen at least for 20 or 30 years because they've tried to expand to quickly. who's going to absorb a country of 45 million such as ukraine, it's not going to happen, it's a fairytale? it's a great emerging market. it was a choice of the ukrainian people during the revolution of dignity, which started just because the previous president of ukraine, yanukovych, did not sign the association agreement with the eu and the desire of people is translating right now in the very specific reform and transformation agenda

for the country that we are carrying on right now. and it will become a truth one day and i'm sure everybody will only be benefiting from ukraine joining the eu. as i said, there is a great deal of scepticism both within your country and within the eu about that ever happening. finally and briefly, corruption is a huge issue in ukraine, and i know there isn't a lot of time to talk about it, but it is something which your government came into power saying it was going to tackle, it's endemic in the ukraine, from allegations top to bottom. what are you going to be doing about it? you've got to seize... i fully understand why you're saying this and i understand that this news is getting much better coverage in the west,

but i would like to underline that we have created legislature to fight corruption. we have created institutions like the national anticorru ption bureau and the national anticorru ption prosecution agency for preventing corruption that are already fully functional and carrying out the actions against high officials. we have opened up... we have opened up of all the politicians, their declarations of their assets, totally open to public. this is ensuring a lot of accountability. we have introduced the best ever system that is recognised in the west for the electronic public procurement, which is already saving us 10% of our public procurement budget. so we're closing the loopholes in our procedures that would invite any corru ption—prone activities, and i'm sure that with time we will tackle this endemic issue that we have to deal with. vice prime minister ivanna klympush—tsintsadze,

thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk. thank you. good evening. it has been an interesting start to summer. we are in the earlyjuly and we have already had the seventh occasion where temperatures have reached 30 celsius. today it was at london heathrow. we had temperatures of 16 in glasgow. a big contrast from the north to south and that continues. the clearest conditions in scotland, northern ireland, northern england.

a mild and muggy night further south. great conditions compared to what many have seen true today. there will be low cloud enhancing that great colour across the skies of devon, cornwall and parts of pembrokeshire. away from that there will be breaks in the cloud. the chance of some showers, rain and drizzle, nothing desperately heavy. further north there will be cloud breaks. a fresh start. warming up weekly with sunny spells as light winds. we make the most of any early sunshine because of the rest of the day, which will be cloudy. the rain will spread towards 0rkney and shetland by the end of the day. still sunny in scotland, northern ireland, northern england. further south, more cloud. stilla ireland, northern england. further south, more cloud. still a couple of light passing showers. warming up. sunshine alt, but not as hot as today. cooler further north. sunshine alt, but not as hot as today. coolerfurther north. light winds and strong sunshine. the sunshine will breakthrough, butjust

saturday. sunday and monday as well at wimbledon. each day there is a lwa ys at wimbledon. each day there is always the chance of crossing showers. a few showers in southern areas to take us into saturday. the wettest weather in the highlands of scotland. all linked into this weather front which will push southward into sunday. it will get as far as southern scotland and have second thoughts. it will stay there for much of the day. that's how we start sunday. still pretty muddy across much of england and wales. lots of cloud. misty around the coasts. in london the cloud will break up. a couple of spells through the morning. there could be some showers later. even the odd heavy and thundery one. in scotland and northern ireland, cloudy and cool in southern parts. 0utbrea ks northern ireland, cloudy and cool in southern parts. outbreaks of rain. heavier into the afternoon. the far north of scotland should stay dry, with some sunny spells. enjoy your weekend.