this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour as newsday continues straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. what lessons have the russians learned from the progress or lack of it of their military offensive in ukraine? right now russian forces are focused on the east of the country, the donbas. and what happens in the next few weeks will be critical for the future of ukraine, of russia and of european security.

my guest is the former russian oligarch turned arch putin foe mikhail khodorkovsky. if putin is cornered how will he respond? mikhail khodorkovsky, welcome to hardtalk. western leaders say that puitn�*s invasion that vladimir putin invasion of ukraine must fail. do you think they understand what it will take to ensure that putin means war ends in defeat?

in a sense, this war is about will, it's about the will and determination of putin, about the will of ukrainians led by zelensky and also about the will of the west to confront putin. whose will right now do you think is the strongest? you know putin well, i'd be interested in your answer.

really? because there is a school of thought in the west that putin cannot afford a humiliation in ukraine. and if he is facing humiliation he will use all of the weaponry at his disposal including weapons of mass destruction, including, some believe, nuclear weapons. are you saying that

fear is misplaced? you visited washington, dc just a few days ago, you spoke to us officials, you've seen the latest

assistance package for ukraine, $800 million of new weaponry perhaps some heavy weaponry that we seen before. still nothing like the list that president zelensky wants of heavy artillery, fighterjets, all sorts of things which he is not getting. as you talk to the americans into european leaders as well, do you believe that they will never provide this weaponry or perhaps the provided but maybe it will be too late? what is your message to them?

this isn'tjust about weapons, is it? it's also about the vast amounts of money that the west, particularly the europeans sent to russia every single day, every single week, every month of the year in terms of payments for oil and gas. hundreds of millions of dollars every single day. why hasn't that oil and gas revenue to russia been cut off?

but we are where we are. the german chancellor scholz says if germany was to cut off the gas taps from russia tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of germans would be thrown out of work. do you really believe that is a politically viable option for a country like germany? let me stop you there.

because you are the former boss of yukos energy. you were once arguably russia's richest energy oligarch, you know that sector better than anybody. if europe in particular stop buying russian oil and gas, how quickly would teutons war machine and the russian economy collapse, or at least no longer be able to function in the way it functions today? in the meantime, what we see as europe discusses oil and gas but frankly does very little about it, what we see is some limited

sanctions on the banking sector, they've stopped importing coal or at least they're promising to end they've taken measures to freeze the huge reserves of russian money in overseas banks and dave targeted oligarchs. you speak to me as a former russian oligarchs, do you think the seizing of yachts, the telling roman abramovich he can no longer own chelsea football club, do all these big headline measures, to the make any difference? do the make any difference?

as you see the terrible events unfold in ukraine and you reflect on more than two decades of putin in power, do you in any sense feel a sense of responsibility and deep regret that going back to the late 1990s and early 2000's, you were one of the power brokers in russia that actually aided and supported putin in his bid to take power after yeltsin? without you putin might have struggled, with you he was a political force. do you regret your association with him?

do you think he changed or did you get him wrong at the beginning? and you obviously paid a very heavy price, not least ten years in russian prison and you today

are a very passionate campaigner against putin and for what you call in open russia, with an open russian foundation, with an anti—putin coalition of exiled politicians. you are doing everything you can to change russia from outside but would you accept that what we see today is the failure of your political campaign against putin?

i'm sure you are aware of the total information control that the kremlin operates, you're aware of the narrative that putin and his associates are giving to the russian people. this is russia's defensive war, nato is seeking to undermine russian security and that russia has a fundamental right to send its forces into a war which is safeguarding russian culture, russian history and russia's future. that seems to be a message that resonates with the people and that's why i'm wondering whether your message

that this is putin's war rather than a russian war, whether that is missing a very important point.

but i want you to address a somewhat different point, which is simply this, the soviet empire collapsed 30 years ago, in countries like ukraine they have begun to build a civil society, democratic institutions, the rule of law, it is very far from perfect but the process has begun. why, three decades on has that process not even really begun in russia and people like you have poured money into open russia foundation and other civil society initiatives have failed, why?

do you feel ashamed of your own country today? because you live outside it, you live in a very different world and ijust wonder whether you really feel russian any more, whether you just feel shame about your country.

you said just a short time ago that you were absolutely sure, and i'm quoting you, "putin is regime is going to end very soon. " why do you say that?

and and then what, and then what? what are the alternatives for the russian people in terms of leadership? boris nemtsov, one of the leading oppositions dead, alexey navalny, perhaps the biggest opposition figure today locked up in a prison, people like you, garry kasparov, all exiled, no longer even in russia.

what kind of leadership is russia going to get? is it going to be one of putin's associates and if so why should things change?

do you intend to go back to being part of that, as you see it, post putin, very different russian future? mikhail khodorkovsky, i thank you very much indeed for being on hardtalk, thank you. hello.

0ur weather's going to be pretty settled over the next few days. it's fairly quiet out there right now and not much change on the way for friday. one thing that we will notice is that cool breeze strengthening day by day, particularly noticeable on the north sea coast, and this often happens when we have high pressure close to iceland there over the norwegian sea, low pressure to the south, and that basically shunts quite a strong airstream from scandinavia across the north sea and cuts through the uk. particularly chilly on those north sea coasts. it'll also drag in some cloud, some moisture, particularly to central and eastern parts of england, so a slow grey, breezy, chilly start to the day here, whereas out towards the west, there'll be sunshine. also, a few showers developing anywhere from london into the south midlands, southern wales, maybe salisbury plain, perhaps the west country but elsewhere, it should be sunny. so, cold on the north sea. 0n the actual coast, it could be ten degrees, but warmer spots, maybe southwestern parts of scotland, perhaps as high as 19, most of us somewhere in between.

also worth noting the tree pollen levels will be generally moderate to high on friday. so, the weekend, then, that pattern continues, so the high across the north, low pressure to the south. we can see the rain across spain and france, so the bad weather's to the south of us, but we still have that strong breeze and, again, a few showers. perhaps a little more widespread, maybe, spreading into northern parts of england during the course of saturday. again, chilly on the north sea coast, maybe 12 in newcastle, typically 16 there in plymouth and not far off that in belfast as well. here's a sunday's weather forecast — more of the same — cold wind out of the north sea and all the bad weather staying way to the south of us and similar temperatures, perhaps not even making double figures there in aberdeen. so, let's have a look at the outlook into monday. slight change in the wind direction, so you could see the high pressure

builds down again across the uk, the wind switches direction — it will be more of a northerly. so, temperatures will actually drop as we go through the course of next week, maybe making around 10, ii, 12 degrees across some northern towns and cities. bye— bye.

welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. i'm mariko 0i. the headlines... president biden announces another $800 million of military help for ukraine, in what he calls a critical phase of the war. to modernise teddy roosevelt's famous advice, sometimes you ought to speak softly and carry a large javelin, ought to speak softly and carry a largejavelin, because we a large javelin, because we are sending a lot of those in as well. as president putin claims to have taken control of mariupol, we report on how some have managed to leave the besieged city. also in the programme... borisjohnson will become the first uk prime minister to be investigated for claims that he deliberately misled parliament.