this is bbc world news. the headlines: voting in the first round of the french presidential election is drawing to a close. president macron faces a strong challenge from marine le pen. 1200 bodies have been found around the ukrainian capital kyiv since russian forces left. that's according to the country's prosecutor—general. in the south and east there have been more russian attacks. an inquiry into how the tax arrangements of the uk's chancellor's wife became public is now under way, the bbc understands. the frontrunner to become pakistan s next prime minister says the removal of imran khan in a late—night confidence vote is a chance for a new beginning for the country. the bbc understands an inquiry

into how the tax arrangements of the chancellor's wife, akshata murthy, became public is now underway. labour has suggested that there may a conflict of interest between rishi sunak�*s role as chancellor and ms murthy�*s tax status, as a non—domiciled uk resident. they insist all laws were followed. our political correspondent, david wallace lockhart has the latest. the chancellor's wife, akshata murthy, has non—dom status in the uk, which means she is not obliged to pay uk tax on any overseas income, and that is completely within the rules for her personal situation. she has said she is now, going forward, going to pay uk tax on that overseas income, but that isn't the end of this matter because the chancellor himself wants to find out how this became public. he has asked for a leak inquiry into how that information got out. that is now under way. quite often these inquiries don't get to the bottom of things.

whatever happens, though, there will be questions around how all of this got handled. as we've said, akshata murthy is now going to pay uk tax on her overseas income. that's something that a government minister, kit malthouse, was asked about this morning, speaking to the bbc. he said that he thinks she's now made the correct decision. the situation they had was perfectly legal and allowed. asl as i understand they complied with the letter_ as i understand they complied with the letter of the law as far as the tax situation was concerned. however, they have recognised that, at this time and given his particularjob, as miss murty said, it offended against a sense of british fair play and so they have changed the situation. you can ask no you can ask no more you can ask no more than that. some opposition parties are asking for more than that. the lib dems are actually saying they want any cabinet minister in the uk to have to reveal if they or their spouse has non—dom status when it comes to tax. they also want ministers to have to be clear if they have ever used tax havens. labour also not happy — they say there was a lack of transparency around

the chancellor's personal financial circumstances throughout this saga. they say it's raised ethical questions. yvette cooper, labour shadow home secretary, spoke to the bbc earlier. here is what she had to say about how this has all been handled. it lawful but questions whether it's ethicah _ the fact they have changed their tax arrangements now show they do recognise it is a problem but they wouldn't have done that if this hadn't been public. and that's why i do not understand the chancellor's decision making and i don't _ the chancellor's decision making and i don't understand how rishi sunak would _ i don't understand how rishi sunak would think it was fair.— would think it was fair. labour are not sa in: would think it was fair. labour are not saying which _ would think it was fair. labour are not saying which they _ would think it was fair. labour are not saying which they have - would think it was fair. labour are not saying which they have said i not saying which they have said under previous leaders including jeremy corbyn and ed miliband is that they would ban non—dom status for people living in the uk. that is something the party say they have a review on and they will make a

decision in due course. political commentator jo phillips says launching an inquiry into how the information came out isn't a good move for the chancellor politically. it underlines what many commentators have been saying for the last few days, that actually he has shown astonishing political naivety. however, it is against the law to leak someone's tax status, so from that point of view, you can see why — he is obviously furious because it is about his wife and he is obviously furious because it is against the law. there is a vague possibility, i suppose, of some criminal proceedings following. my experience and i think both of us have been around long enough to have heard of umpteen leaks and what happens after them, not very much, with the notable exception of gavin williamson who was sacked by theresa may for a leakfrom the national security council in 2019. i think it probably would have been better for the chancellor to let this go away. he has obviously been forced, he and his wife have been

forced into a u—turn which is always embarrassing. there are two schools of thought in politics. when something goes wrong, you either brazen it out or you react quickly. what they did is the classic mistake of trying to brazen it out, then having to go on the back foot, so the story has lasted longer. we know that his rating had already slipped after the spring statement and the timing of this could not be worse. as the rest of us are getting our increased energy bills, our council tax bills, are struggling to pay for fuel costs on the forecourts, the cost of living crisis is engulfing everybody, so to have this come out right now just feeds into the narrative that this is a chancellor who is completely out of touch and that, in turn, feeds into the notion that, along with party gate, which borisjohnson would love to go away, this is a government that is out of touch with ordinary people because it is one rule for them and one rule

for the rest of us. it's palm sunday today, which signals the beginning of holy week for christians across the world. a huge procession is underway injerusalem, where worshippers began inside the holy church of the sepulchre and made their way to the mount of olives. palm sunday recalls an event in the new testament, when jesus entered into jerusalem and was greeted by the people waving palm branches. the first all—private mission to the international space station has docked. the crew — consisting of a pilot and three passengers — have been welcomed inside the international space station. they are due to spend eight days orbiting the earth. the flight is being hailed as a milestone in the commercialisation of space flight. kathy lueders runs nasa's human space flight programme and she gave her thoughts on this new push in the commercialisation of space. i think this is part of our plan, right? when nasa was set up over 60 years ago it was really about how do

you enable and use the space economy and so here we are 60 years later, embarking on our full private astronaut mission to the international space station, already we are flying our cargo and crew commercially and one day and one day we're hoping, after 2030, after we retire the space station, there will become passengers on a commercial destination. like you said it's all about not having one ride, it's about us opening up the opportunity for multiple people and so if you just have governments do this you're kind of limiting the opportunity so we are trying to be an accelerator and enable, maybe it's not the next year, maybe it's not ten years from now from now but maybe 50, 60 years from now we are not waiting so long for a ride.

let s get some more of the day's global news. the prime minister of australia, scott morrison, has called a general election for next month. speaking in canberra after asking the governor general to formally disolve the parliament, mr morrison emphasised his economic track record, saying his government had cut taxes and laid a strong foundation for australia to prosper. polls suggest that mr morrison will be defeated by his labor party rival, anthony albanese. thousands of people have gathered in the sri lankan capital, colombo, to protest against the country's deepening economic crisis. the demonstrators are calling for the president, gotabaya rajapaska, to step down. so far, the president and his brother, the prime minister, mahinda rajapaksa, have refused to resign. the bestselling novelist known as jack higgins has died — he was 92. he wrote 85 novels but is best known for his 1975 book, the eagle has landed, about a nazi plot to kidnap winston churchill during the second world war. it sold more than 50 million copies and was adapted into a film starring michael caine.

now on bbc news, has putin's plan failed? frank gardner explains why putin's plan has so far failed. this is now shockingly familiar. death and destruction right on europe's eastern flank. missile roars overhead. because russia's invasion has shattered cities. explosion. it's killed thousands and driven millions from their homes. and now president putin's war machine is accused of genocide and atrocious war crimes. almost no—one expected ukraine to be able to stand up to the might of the

russian army but this invasion has not gone according to the kremlin�*s plans. it surprised everyone, including me, how poorly the russian army has performed in this war. we are going to try to break down how putin's plan went wrong and what are the options from here. they hoped for a quick victory but that hasn't happened. you can see the red areas because they shout were russian forces are largely in control. there is no question they have bitten off a significant chunk of ukrainian territory, possibly more than they can handle, they have

made gains in the south but in the north the ukrainians have largely held off the russians and stalled their advance. as russian troops have withdrawn from towns around kyiv, they have been accused of carrying out atrocities on the civilian population. ukraine's president calls it genocide. russia says it is fake news. so, what was moscow's original plan for ukraine in this war? put simply, putin wants to bring ukraine back into moscow's orbit. nojoining nato, nojoining the european union, in fact, he would like to bring it back to where it was before it had a change of government in 2014, when a pro—moscow government was replaced by a pro—western one. putin wants to see a complete restructuring of the whole security apparatus for eastern

europe. to make that happen, putin needed regime change in kyiv, the capital, because there was no way that president zelensky and the ukrainian government were going to bow to moscow's demands. hence the invasion. when the invasion began on february 2a, it was a three—pronged attack from the south using crimea as a springboard, from the east, the donbas and from the north, where belarus helped russia launch this invasion. the initial idea behind the invasion was a pretty simple one, seize the capital kyiv, secure all important sites in the main cities, kill or capture president zelensky, or let him run away and replace his government with a sympathetic pro—moscow one. well, it hasn't worked out that way. ukraine stood its ground. its army has been outnumbered and outgunned, but its people have been fighting back hard and their morale is pretty

high, extraordinarily high given what they have suffered. russian tactics have been often very poor. the commanders have failed to combine inventory with tanks and artillery to the best effect. they have missed a big opportunity there. then there are the russian logistics which have often failed, and that has meant their convoys have got bogged down and stalled as they wait for fuel and supplies and that makes them an easy target. and yet russia's president vladimir putin, the man behind this invasion, says it is all going to plan. i am haunted by the sense that this will be the first phase in a much bigger european crisis. professor michael clarke is one of the leading experts on military strategy in britain and i think he is as surprised

as i am at the shortcomings of the russian military. in the weeks and days building up to this invasion, the world looked at this army of nearly 200,000 that had massed on the borders and we were told of the huge capital investment, that it had been upgraded, and it was supposed to be a really powerful force that massively outnumbered ukraine's forces. what has gone wrong with it? what are their mistakes? the army was not modernised in the way that everybody thought. the famous phrase has been used many times but the russians have a large modern army, yes, but the part that was large wasn't modern and the part that was modern wasn't large, and interestingly, even the elite forces failed on all of their objectives. they failed to hold their early objectives so even russia's elite forces underperformed and their main forces disastrously underperformed because of structural reasons, that they did not give enough credence to logistics,

they made the fatal mistake of underestimating their enemy, they assumed that it would be a quick campaign, so they were only equipped for a few days, they set off in quite difficult weather and did not have any warm weather clothing. the mistakes went on and on and on. we knew that the russian army had these sorts of deficiencies but we didn't believe that they would not have corrected them for this sort of operation, where they employed effectively half of their ground forces and we thought, these are the best half that they have, they must have got it right, they must have overcome all of the things that used to be wrong with the old red army, but apparently not. so given all of that, it did not take long before russian forces found themselves overstretched, spread out over too many fronts. that has meant problems with supplies, fuel and morale, so time

for a plan b. supplies, fuel and morale, so time for a plan 5-— for a plan b. this is unreal. it's like walking — for a plan b. this is unreal. it's like walking to _ for a plan b. this is unreal. it's like walking to a _ for a plan b. this is unreal. it's like walking to a world - for a plan b. this is unreal. it's like walking to a world war- for a plan b. this is unreal. it's like walking to a world war ii i for a plan b. this is unreal. it's. like walking to a world war ii film set. this was the centre of grozny, 12, 15 story apartment blocks. chechens and syrians will be all too familiar with russian military doctrine when it comes to taking cities. that doctrine means that if you cannot get into the city with infantry and tanks, if there is too much resistance, they simply stand off and batter it with artillery, rockets, missiles and drones from a distance. it happened in grozny in chechnya, it happened in aleppo and it has happened in mariupol. nowhere has been hit harder than the southern city of mariupol. before the war, it had a population of nearly half a million. today, it's 90% damaged or destroyed. the place is a ghost town, a husk of what it used to be. the reason is that it is strategically important. it is on the coast of the sea of azov, which is linked to the black sea and it stands in the way of russia linking up its forces from crimea in the south,

with their allies in the donbas further to the north and east. and once that city has been taken, it allows russia to move further north and try to encircle the regular ukrainian army forces and concentrate their efforts on the donbas. the forces in crimea looked as if they were more modernised because they were facing potential oppositions since 2014 so they have sorted themselves out, they have shorter lines of communication, so they have been able to move out of the crimea towards donbas and towards 0desa, more efficiently, so that is where they have made gains, where the back—up and logistics has been better and the russians, remember, it is a big military force, they can bring in more troops, more than anything, they have heavy firepower and this is what the russians always rely on, ultimately, the russians could still after a fashion prevail in this war if they used their heavy firepower, bringing in more missiles as they get more,

particularly if they get some from china, they can bring in good old—fashioned artillery with its 15—20 mile range and they can pound cities and pound positions, and ultimately because they always have superior numbers to ukrainians, the ukrainians cannot fight forever. there is only so much that flesh and blood can do and the russians must be thinking that if they keep the pressure up, even if it is inefficient, eventually, the ukrainians will crack at more than one place simultaneously and that will give them their chance, then, to move forward, to use encircling actions to grab a big piece of territory that they can then bargain with. in ten years of the soviet army, the red army, fighting in afghanistan from 1979 to the late 1980s, russia lost roughly 15,000 troops. now, already, the most conservative estimate of troops killed in this war so far is around 7000. ukraine says it is more than double that. that is a lot of funerals taking place in russia. choral singing.

it might seem that russia is prepared to throw unlimited amounts of resources at what it calls the special military operation, in other words, the war in ukraine. there are aspects of russian culture and society that play out into this whole military campaign. suddenly you have to know everything about from kyiv to javelins. .. for me it all interconnects... to get a view on that i spoke to kataryna wolczuk, who spent the last 30 years examining russian society, she's a leading expert at the university of birmingham. putin has developed a passion for history so he has done a lot of reading on the history of russia and ukraine and developed his own interpretation, but also kind of obsession with ukraine and even before the pandemic, we believe

that he was fairly isolated, he already started giving interviews on the historical unity of russia and ukraine and dwelling on religious relations in the 13th and 14th century, so this has become his interest and he certainly regards ukraine as an artificial construct. it is basically a by—product of western plotting against russia. he blames the poles, he blames austro hungarians, but he does not regard ukraine as a viable state and most importantly a nation. hence, this perplexing rhetoric, when it comes to ukraine, that on the one hand we are one people, russia moves in to "protect" the russian speakers in ukraine. 0n the other hand the invasion and the most brutal aspects of it happen in the russian speaking parts of ukraine, so this reflects putin's understanding

of what ukraine is.