this is bbc news — the headlines... hurricane ian is battering the us state of florida with powerful winds and a huge storm surge that has flooded communities along the southwest coast. governor ron de santis said the hurricane would rank as one of the top five ever to strike the state. the bank of england's taken emergency action over the market turmoil in the uk saying it would buy government bonds to protect the uk's financial stability. the pound plunged — and the cost of government borrowing soared — after the conservatives announced their new economic approach last week. iran's president's accused protesters of misusing the death of mahsa amini to cause riots. as protests continued for a 12th day, mr raisi said the death of the young woman

while in the custody of the morality police had saddened everyone and was being investigated with transparency. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. a few days ago, oleksandr shapoval, one of ukraine's leading ballet dancers, was killed while serving with the ukrainian army, fighting the russian invasion. art and culture are not immune from the impact of war. my guest today knows that well. alexei ratmansky is a world—renowned choreographer, with roots in both russia and ukraine. once director of the bolshoi ballet in moscow, he is now putting on a special production of giselle with the united ukrainian ballet to show the world ukrainian culture lives on.

has ballet become a battleground? thank you very much. it's an honour to be here. we're delighted to have you here. you are here in london because you are mounting this extraordinary set of performances of giselle, performed by ukrainian dancers. how can you go about putting on a performance with ukrainians when their country is at war? that was an extraordinary project. it started in march.

i received a call from my friend in holland, she is a principal... former principal ballerina, with het nationale ballet, igone dejongh, and she said, "i have some ukrainian dancers who are refugees and i'd like them to do one of your ballets, if you don't mind." i was absolutely happy and supported the idea wholeheartedly. at the beginning, it was just women, some women, and then as time passed, we received a man who needed a special permission to leave the country, of course... of course, because the men are required to stay in ukraine if they are under 60 years of age... yes. ..they are expected to stay and to fight. that is correct. so, these male dancers, they have a special dispensation? they were sent on a mission to show the world that ukrainian culture is alive and to represent ukraine

on a culture, um, front. now, you are one of the world's top choreographers. is it possible for you to meet your own exacting standards with this company in these circumstances? it's a very different project from anything i've done before and we all do it for other reasons. and it's not a company, it's a group of dancers who happen to be together. we do it for ukraine and actually... ..this is such a strong motivation that the quality follows. how difficult, though, is it to concentrate, particularly, i'm thinking, for your dancers... yeah. ..when every day, there is news from the battlefront?

many of them will have families serving in the military and just a few days ago, you all heard that one of ukraine's leading ballet dancers, who had chosen, who had volunteered to go and fight at the front in the east of the country, was killed. this cannot be easy, to focus. no, very challenging. as you said, the dancers have families, i have a family in kyiv. they're all checking the news constantly. you wake up in the morning and want to know which cities were bombed, how many people were killed, which buildings were destroyed, and check that all your loved ones are ok and safe. if you do it every day, for more than half a year now, it becomes a routine. it sounds horrible, but that's the reality. what about the impact of the death of oleksandr shapoval, who i know you've worked with and many of your dancers

will have worked with? yeah, he was also a teacher in a school, a ballet school, so we have some of his students in the company. he's a hero. he's a brave man. that was a moment that broke the hearts of many. um... there was another man who fought and died, a leading dancer called artem datsyshyn, back in february, i think, and there are other dancers, numerous musicians, actors, directors, you know, who feel the need to defend the country, their land, with arms. i don't know what else to say. i can feel how... we all... we are all so grateful

to these brave people. your own background is fascinating, in the context of what is happening, because you have family roots both in ukraine and in russia. you, in sort of professional terms, were more russian than ukrainian in that your dancing was learned in moscow, you have a very big connection with the bolshoi ballet, where you are artistic director, and you were in moscow, working with the bolshoi on february 24th, when putin launched the invasion. what were your immediate feelings and reaction then? it felt like the world is crashing. you just couldn't comprehend how that is possible. it sounded surreal. however, for a couple of months before the beginning of the war, the president of united states was telling the world that it's going to happen.

yeah, there were warnings. you stayed until february 24th. no—one really believed it was going to happen. my family in kyiv, we talked every day, my friends and relatives in moscow. when i flew from new york, where i'm based for more than 12 years, to moscow, i warned the bolshoi management that if something happens, i would need to leave immediately and they said, "what are you talking about? it's not going to happen." so, just a week before, i think, when putin announced that they support the independence of these luhansk and donetsk republics, so—called republics, it was clear that it's really serious, it's going to happen tomorrow, after tomorrow. how difficult a decision was it for you to quit? because as soon as the tanks

rolled across that border, you quit. you walked away. idid. i got a call from my wife, 5am in the morning, she said kyiv is bombarded. and i said, "i'm leaving." i took my artistic team with me, the bolshoi arranged the tickets... so they didn't try and stop you? no. no, probably because i warned them beforehand. were you fearful at that point? it was... it was a horrific day. it was just horrific day. but nothing felt important, except the safety of our family in kyiv and the existence of the country, for my country. so my history was with the bolshoi and mariinsky and russian ballet and the fact that i knew right away that it's. .. it's terminated now. it's not going to continue. i sort of have to cut my past.

that's a very interesting way of putting it because you were deeply embedded in the russian artistic establishment. you don't get to be artistic director of the bolshoi without having a massive sort of network of connections, of being deeply respected in moscow for your artistic achievement. now, how do you feel about all of that professional commitment, life and energy you gave to russia? on one hand, i grew up as... you know, russian ballet, it's a very big part of world cultural... it's a big deal.

arguably, russia takes ballet more seriously than any other country in the world. yeah. so, ballet is... classical ballet is russian. well, half of it is french. but, um... in that sense, in a professional sense, did you feel yourself to be russian? these are questions that i still don't have answers to you because i think i need time to... to glue my identity together. most of my ballet is choreographed to russian music, russian themes. and your whole approach to ballet, as i understand it, is to respect tradition and the past and to pore over the notes made by some of the greatest choreographers of the past and to be very serious about the history... particularly of russian ballet and now, all of that must feel very strange. it does. it does feel strange. erm... butl... i tell myself that the russian culture of the past, it doesn't have anything to do with putin's crimes and the crimes of the

russian army in ukraine. um... i'm going to defend russian culture now because... you are. you feel it's important to defend russian culture? not for myself. not... i'm not an advocate of russian culture. it will survive. what... ukrainian culture needs help at the moment because it's in danger. ukrainian cultural institutions are destroyed. artists can't practise their art. they are dying on the battlefield. that's much more important. and i don't think in the near future, we're going to see big tours of the bolshoi, mariinsky. that's ok, they will survive. i think the world has to make sure that ukraine wins and this dangerous russian

fascism is stopped. in that very statement, you have expressed your convictions, your... in a sense, your activism, as a campaigner against this war and against vladimir putin. you have expectations of russian artists. what do you expect from them, in terms of a public statement, a declaration, a position on what is happening? in february, when it all started, my first remember... i remember my first thoughts were, that's the end of putin because i thought millions of russians will go out on the streets to protest. there were hundreds of russians, not millions... and, to be fair to them, they were extraordinarily brave people because they got arrested. yes.

the first week, i think, the state was just watching them and then the arrests started, the new laws that do not allow them to call the war "the war". so you can be arrested for that, so i... you can't expect people to protest when they face imprisonment, or other, you know, dangers for themselves and their families. but you have expected that, haven't you? because you made statements saying that you are deeply disappointed with those artists who have remained silent and that silence is not an option in the current situation. let me explain my position. i think if the artists in russia, those who represent the great russian culture, er... ..want to continue going back and forth and publicly support putin, that's not acceptable.

it can't be accepted by the west, i think, because of obvious reasons. it's not always as simple as that, though, is it? let's take a specific case. i'd be interested to know what you think. anna netrebko, she's one of the great sopranos in the world. she's admired and loved in russia, but also in many of the concert halls she plays in around the world. now, she... after the invasion, she said that she condemned the war. she did not want war. what she didn't do was condemn or criticise vladimir putin himself. it seems she managed to upset everybody. you know, those in russia were angry that she'd condemned the war, those outside russia wanted much more in terms of criticism of vladimir putin. she now seems to have been, quote—unquote "cancelled", both inside russia and in many concert halls outside russia. is that fair?

i wish she had made a more clear statement. i think her desire to avoid consequences on both sides made her statement really unclear and confusing and that's why she's facing this situation. is itfair... and i ask this with all respect for everything you are doing, but is it fair for you to draw thosejudgements, sitting here with me in london, living in new york, based in the west... is it fair for you to tell russian artists who live and have families inside russia and who see the consequences of speaking out against putin... is it fair for you to criticise them and to judge them? probably not, because they are not safe. but when you compare their situation to the situation of ukrainian artists, i think thejudgement

is more clear. we discussed oleksandr shapovalov and his life and death and... the existence of the whole nation is in danger. theatres, libraries, schools, colleges, universities, cultural sites of historical significance, are destroyed. i talked about the years you've spent in russia, the network you've built up inside the artistic community. have you, because of your stand and your expectations of others... have you lost relationships, lost friendships because of this? yeah, i lost a lot of friendships. and that's very hard, it's very painful. but on the other hand... can you tell me about some of the conversations you've had with people that you used to regard as friends?

so, when it all started, because it was so hectic and so inexplicable, i thought... because, you know, ballet dancers, all of us who concentrate on ballet, we're so focused from an early age. we live in a very narrow world. you need to practise, you need to prepare for performances and that takes your whole attention. so, very few of the ballet people i know are political at all. most of them are just, you know... have it passing by. i was writing letters to my close friends and dancers whom i admire their work very closely, saying, "guys, listen, maybe you don't have information, you don't know what is going on." i tried not to be emotional, but ijust gave them facts that international news were reporting.

how many killed, how many are refugees, you know, this kind of thing. and what was their response to facts? silence. or, "let's not mix politics and art. we're doing art and we want to concentrate on that." well, that's an interesting point. i just want to ask you whether you now feel there is a basis for, if i can use a word like this, de—russifying the artistic sort of output that we see in the west? for example, the bolshoi ballet was cancelled from performances in london. in cardiff, in wales, they cancelled a tchaikovsky concert. i notice that you, here in london with the united ukrainian ballet, are performing giselle, which is one of those classic ballets which is actually not russian and i guess that's deliberate. do you think there has to be

a de—russification of culture? i think, emotionally, it's very understandable and it's clear that, for example, swan lake, the most famous of all ballets, was always used as a political tool by the soviet powers. so, performing... performing swan lake, nowadays... . . hurts many people. millions of people. so you don't want to see... on the other hand... no, it's much more complex than that. but on the other hand, what does tchaikovsky have in common with what is going on now? and he is the most sensitive and human of all composers. er... the bolshoi ballet,

like the mariinsky ballet, or any other big cultural institutions in russia, they are state—funded. they pay the state as well, from their benefits, and this money is used, are used, for killing ukrainians. a lot of my ballets that i've performed were performed by the bolshoi mariinsky. when the war started, i asked both theatres to suspend my ballets. they have licence. i can't do anything about it. and they sort of agreed, then they started performing it again. the knowledge that the taxes that the dancers pay and spectators pay and the theatre pays from benefits are used to kill my country... ..fellow men... it's... it's horrific. the bolshoi ballet is probably the most renowned ballet

company in the world and you have a long association with it. i just wonder whether you feel that it is impossible for you to imagine ever working with them again, or indeed, frankly, returning to russia again. until the war ends and there is a clear denouncement of what has happened and putin is sued for his crimes, not only him, but the army of propagandists, the military, and his government, i don't think it would be possible for me to go back, but... ..i hope that russia will change and i can return because it's a part of me. how ambitious are you for

the ukrainian ballet? you've built this group from scratch. now, of course, it's temporary and many of them will go back to ukraine, many of them have very difficult circumstances, but would you like to see in the future this planting a seed of a sort of artistic renaissance inside ukraine? yes. that's a great ambition and hope. i do want these dancers to go back to their home companies and continue their lives there. the situation is very dramatic because, let's say, ballet students, those who are growing up, they left the country, they left their schools, they installed in different schools and i have to say that the ballet community around the world have been very, very helpful, you know, giving them spaces to live and study. now, you get attached to your class, your teachers, you learn the repertory of the companies and it might be impossible for them

to return, so when the war ends and ukraine starts to rebuild its life back to normal, we might need to start everything from scratch. final thought — do you think this war and the experience you have had in the last crazy six, seven months... it's clearly affected you deeply as a person. do you think it's forever affected your artform as well? do you think you might actually look at ballet differently from now on? er... yeah. um... it did change... it did change me. absolutely. and i thought... at the beginning, i was not able to imagine choreographing, creating a ballet. but i finally did and i use ukrainian music and i use ukrainian design. it's going to premiere next week in seattle, the ballet�*s done.

and it's a different me. it's a different you. er... yes. so, in a way, a new start for you. it's a new start also because i've never worked with ukrainian dancers since my youth in kyiv. so it is a new beginning. and that is where we, for now, have to end, but, alexei ratmansky, it's been a pleasure having you on hardtalk. thank you ever so much. thank you. hello. yesterday was a day of sunshine and showers.

today, it's a pretty similar theme, but if anything, i think more in the way of sunshine and fewer in the way of showers. still quite a cluster around first thing on thursday on the tail end of this weather front that's sliding off towards the continent, but actually this little finger, a brief finger of high pressure is going to try and settle things down for this thursday. so, there's some showers to start the day across the south—west of england and pembrokeshire, gone through the morning, but winds in off the north sea will feed some scattered showers into northern england, the north midlands, perhaps the north of east anglia through the afternoon, a few across scotland, too. but predominantly, i think, dry and sunny and temperatures upa degree or so on wednesday, 15—17. through the evening and overnight, it's going to turn quite chilly across eastern areas of england, winds fall light and the skies stay clear. different picture towards north—west, winds kick up, cloud comes in and rain by the end of the night for northern ireland and western scotland. so, 10—11 the overnight lows here. perhaps the odd three across

the south—east of england. friday, we are going to be dominated by low pressure. we start the day fine with some sunshine across central and eastern england, but wet towards the north—west. and this whole system will swing its way through during the course of the day, brighter but with some showers through the afternoon for scotland and northern ireland. temperatures dipping behind the weather system yet again, and then it's a wet end to the day across eastern england. that whole frontal system, though, does push away quite quickly, and in time for the weekend, we're left with low pressure, yes, but i think more in the way of sunny intervals again. some showers, just the chance of some more persistent rain running into the south of the uk later on on saturday. so, in comparison to friday, well, yes, it's still quite than being persistent, aside from potentially this area pushing into southern england later on in the day on saturday. into the early part of sunday, too, but sunday daytime,

in the way of showers. our greatest chance of getting caught in the rain will be along many of our west coasts, but in the east, with some shelter, it should feel pretty pleasant again. temperatures getting up into the mid—teens.

this is bbc news, i'm sally bundock with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. one of the most powerful storms in us history hits florida's southwest coast — leaving two million people without power. all of this is proof of what officials have said all along, that it doesn't matter if you are in the eye of the storm, the floods, the storm, they could all have devastating consequences and even life—threatening ones. this is the scene live in florida, as the state continues to feel the impact of this monster storm. the british government says it won't abandon its plan for big tax cuts, despite the turmoil it's triggered in financial markets.

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