♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. george: actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. it the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo.

narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. announcer: and now, "bbc news". ♪ >> hello. this is the context on becomes news. >> this war must be settled and there should be peace through negotiations and diplomatic means. >> this is an individual who wants to wipe the nation of ukraine completely from here. i have my questions as to what kind of discussions of dialogue we can have with this person.

>> we have to look at how and where we're going to target the weapons that are going to be used against us. this is a very serious threat and nato is going to be involved in this military conflict. ♪ >> hello there, and welcome to the program. russia streaks kyiv again just as a delegation of african leaders visit thank you cranian capital to discuss peace solutions. also, a two-year investigation into the minneapolis police department in the wake of the killing of george floyd has found that officers routinely used excessive force and discriminated against black people for years. an update from calamrta in greece where officials have denied a series of reports that suggests the mike rant boat which capsized did so because a rope was attached to it by coast

guards and the amend rise of artificial intelligence technology has led to fear and concern but also a lot of exciting institution solutions. one example from definitely, where a.i. is being usedded to predict pollution in waterways. first of all, the capital kyiv has come into missile attack at the same time that a delegation of african leaders have arrived to discuss bays to tend the war with russia. they're arrived from train by warsaw. led by the president ramaphosa. this morning they went to the site of the mass grave just outside of kyiv. 458 people are buried there who were killed at the start of the war. after the talks, president zelenskyy held a news conference with the african leaders. let's take a listen.

>> russia is the only sort source of war and the only reason why the consequences of this war are causing damage to the whole world. >> nobody can fill that their borders are protected and the safety of their people are ensured while russia is it thatting to make the aggression and the abduction of people as something that is normal. >> we are hear -- here to listen. to listen both to president zelenskyy and tomorrow we'll will listening to president putin. we do so with deep respect for the people of ukraine which we've compressed to president zelenskyy and we argue that -- expressed to president zelenskyy and we argue that from muck de-esque lakes on both sides so that peace can find a way to

resolve the perosh. >> south african president ramaphosa speaking -- speaking there. the delegation now heads to moscow to feet with president putin what delivered a speech at showcase st. petersburg international economic forum. helso announced that russia's stationed its first batch of technical nuclear weapons in bell russell. the russian leader warned nato to be careful about the weapons it supplies to ukraine. >> leopard tanks are burning. f-16's will burn in the same way, i have no doubt. [applause] if they're used outside of ukraine's borders to be used in

combat, we'll have too look at how and where we'll use weapons for the battlefield. there is a serious threat that nato will be involved in this. >> spite that, new evidence has shed light on the true scale of casualties suffered in this war. at least 25,000 soldiers have been killed in ukraine. that's four times higher than the figure acknowledged by moscow. the research suggests that many of the casualties are now older fighters with little or no training and significant numbers have been recruited from prisons. our correspondent has this special report. >> these are the war graves russia doesn't want to talk about. since december, the bbc has located seven new semitours dotted across russia and occupied you crane. they're filled with the braves

of -- graves of poorly trained fighters. many were prisoners and the cemeteries are growing rapidly. this one is about 20 times bigger that be it was six months ago. sie the start of the war we have been finding photos of graves on social media posts with the independents russia web scythe and volunteers inside the country. so far we have identified 25,000 names. four times more than russia has acknowledged. it's illegal to report anything but the official death toll inside russia so we have come to kurdistan to speak to the families of fight who have died. hundreds of fighters like this that were once part of the soviet union have signed up to fight putin's forces. this 21-year-old is typical of those who joined at the start of

the ospect. a young, highly trained soldier in the russian army. >> he always wanted to be the first. i think that's why he chose to join the military and there he was given the choice, apparently. he chose to be there. >> go to war, you mean? >> yes, yes. >> he was burieded with full hill tori honors after he was killed in action in may 2022. but six months later in a nearby village there was no funeral for another fighter, iya even though hi also fought on the front line. that's because he wasn't a soldier but a prisoner. he had signed up to fight hoping to win his freedom in return for a six-month contract. >> a man called and told me that my son died fighting in ukraine. i was shocked. i asked, how come my son was even at the war? did my son die for nothing?

>> the depths of these two show how russia's war has changed inned first three months of the conflict, it was to large numbers of professional soldiers but in the past three months, it's non-professional fighters who of recently joined the russian forces that are dying in greater numbers. >> the shift in demographics of russian losses reflect the fact that not only rushier lost a lot of their professional sowards early in the war but now -- now they're holding them in condition of later use and now they're being lead by troops that they treat in a disposable way. >> estimates from russia's minister of definition estimates the true figure is likely to be at least twice as high.

the becomes contacted the russian government for contract but it has not responded and every day the messages of photos of graves keep coming. >> joining us is james nixy, director -- director of the russia ueurasia house at chatham house. there's quite a lot to get through. let's, start, james, if albuquerque, with the significance of this number that the bbc has uncovered. 25,000 in terms of soldiers who died. obviously russia has given a much higher figure. we had a much higher figure from the u.k government previously. talk to us about why states don't necessarily tell the truth about numbers killed in war. >> we're talking about numbers killed in the current counter

offensive, of course. to your point, russia's death figures are classified information so we really are not allowed to know what the true figure is. i think it's a relatively good rule of thumb that when president putten in a meeting to russian military progressers a couple of days ago said that the losses were 10-1 in russia's favor. but in fact, you could almost reverse that by which i mean, never really believe anything until the kremlin denies it is a good rule of thumb. so we don't know the prosise figures but clearly ukraine has made significant inroads three or four places along the front line. beyond that, if you're looking to the future in any sense, i think it will continue to take territory, wherever it can achieve a land bridge.

>> and we saw in olga's report that many families had absolutely no idea that their regular actives had died. some of them didn't even know that their relatives were at war. how is this talked about, if at all, on russian state tv? >> you're right to ask if at all because it's really a to havic completely off limits on russian state tv where the courses -- sources are dictated by the russian creme lincoln. we had report of a few thousand and since then rare reports of deaths in ukraine have been seen in local news, and russian social media and independent sites. they've been able to piece them together and come to this larger

figure. also, as olga pointed out, if you talk about russian figures, you're potentially putting yourself at risk of being put in jail for "spreading fake news about the russian army. which is why something of this kind of discussion is simply not happening in russia because of the fear of the consequences it entails. >> and if we can look at some of president putin's comments today at, he said ukraine will soon run out of its own military equipment, already totally reliant on hardware from the west he warned nato about continuing to arm ukraine but also that line that the first batch of tactical nucar weapons has been sent to belarus. that's a warning a some

significant action on the same day. >> first of all, in terms of weapons going into ukraine. if we don't know what's going into ukraine, i'm sure perspective putin doesn't. there's a fair bit of bluster here. as far as the movement of nuclear weapons, we've known about it for some time, it's before prewarned for some time so it should come as to surprise to nick. but we should remember that nuclear use by russia, it causes more problems than it solves. the chinese would drop their contingent support for russia and frankly, it wouldn't achieve any battlefield success. it would certainly lose russia what little global support it actually has. >> so why do this at all? >> well, partly because its bark is worse than its bite. obviously it was designed to deter the west from inserting

itself into thank you cranian battlefield any more than it is already and that certainly is a method that has achieved a great deal of success in the past and during this war. it is a well known tactic from the russian play book. >> and just as we see the tenor of this war change, of course now we're hearing about this counter offensive from ukraine, we're hearing about the losses that russia has sustained and seeing the change in fro file. there were a lot of professional soldiers dying in the beginning of the war and now we're seeing more civilians, more vernes. talk to us about how russia is adapting its deployment strategy based on what's happening in ukraine. >> well, i think we're now seeing that ukraine is going on the offensive and really russia is -- we've seen over the last few months these really quite enormous defensive lines

developing across southern and eastern ukraine that have been captured by satellite imagery and really now, i think it's a matter of waiting to see what ukraine does and how russia is able to respond to this. and i think the changes have come more on the ukrainian side than the russian side because so many troopsaver trained in western nations and we're now seeing the introduction of western military hardware on their vehicles and thank and that's really changing the complexion of the conflict. on the russian side, we've seen a very static attritional battle for a small town in ukraine and now that the russians have seized that by effectively wiping that from the state of the earth, it's now a question of hunkering down and trying to limit thank you crane advances. >> we'll have to leave it there but thank you very much to you

both. good to have you. around the world and across the u.k., you're watching bbc news. the former head of the u.k. police watchdog has been charged of rape against a girl of 16. michael lockwood is the head of the independent office of police conduct. he stepped down in september after discovering he was the subjects of a police probe. southeast water says it has no choice after demand for water had reached what they called record levels. anyone caught throughouting the ban will face a 1,000 pound fine. and there are early signs that price rises are starting to flow from bosco.

food inflation has hit 19% over the last year but mr. murphy has said that it was unfair to criticize supermarkets for that you're live with bbc news. this is the context. the u.s. justice department has published a damning report on policing in minneapolis which was prompted by the killing of george floyd three yrs ago. the attorney general merrick garland said the city's police routinely used excessive force and discritical nateed against black people and native americans. he said they deployed firearms when they weren't needed and violated people's freedom of speech. let's listen. >> the fat earnings we observed made what happened to george floyd possible. as one city leader toll told us -- these systemic issues didn't just occur on they 25th,

2020 there were insurances like that being reported by the community long before that." we found the city engages in a practice of using successive force. unlatchly discriminating against black and native people in enforcing activities, violating their rights of protective speech and discriticalling -- discriminating against people of behavioral issues when responding to them in crisis. >> let's get more with our north american correspondent jessica parker. jessica, what else was in this rert shall >> there were these sort of headline findings. this has been a two-year investigates by the department of justice. they found there was discrimination against black

people and native americans and also that the force failed to deal properly with people experiencing meantal health issues. there's quiet a lot in the report about the improper use of rce and the report outlines specific incidents where things have gone wrong, where they say that actually officers resorted to using firearms or tasers or pepper spray unnecessarily. one incident in 2017, an officer fired his gun as a woman approached his squad car because she had spooked him somehow and in woman had actually called the police after reports of a potential sexual assault nearby. and there are numerous instances listed and another one where a young man swore at police officers and they ended up putting him in a neck restraint. again the report says wrongfully. so lots of incidents. not just that excessive force

was used or examples of racism in the force but examples of fellow police officers not calling it out or reporting it either and that's one of the reasons why you hear maybe garland talking about a systemic issue in the police authority. >> there were months of protests after the depth of george floyd. locally and internationally even. i wonder what recommendations this report makes? >> some things have already changed, we're told. so they now predict the use of neck restraints. many will remember that george floyd died after an officer put his knee on george floyd's neck for over nine minutes. that officer was subsequently convicted of murder and manslaughter so they've predicted that. and there are lots of recommendations in trying to

ensure officers don't escalate the situation, but rather deescalate the situations. don't look to force unnecessarily. looking to better policing of protests and using social services to go to calls where maybe somebody has mental health issuesnd that they might be better able to deal with that than police. it is a mix of recommendations that aren't already happening and what aarrangement is here, is that a federal judge will oversea these recommendations. that's-freeing to ensure it's not just the police force and local authority marking their own homework. >> jessica, thank you very much. up to 500 people are still missing off the packed migrant boat that sank off the greece

coast. 79 people are confirmed to have died. nine suspected smugglers has been arrested in greece and cots from at least two survivors says the both overturned after the greek coast guard tried to tow it. the greek government denies it. in was the moment a syrian man, mohamad, found his brother feti at the port. tv's an emotional reunion. feti is just 18 and had been in libya for almost two years. let's speak to the volunteer doctor for the helenic red cross which whichever who is in calamata now. thanks for talking to us. we understand that this important is now really the center of rescue operations. >> hello, greetings from greece. as you can imagine.

things have gotten smoother right now as far as the survivors are concerned. our team was on site from the first moments to provide everything necessary, like clothing and food and, of course, first aid. we were mobilized later the first evening and on thursday morning, we were at the first light on the reception center to provide medical assistance. on the survivors and at least 75 of which were on site and 27 of them were hospitalized at calamato. now that most of the survivors had been transferred to another reception center, things have gotten smoother.

this is a much better place were them with everything needed. i think, let's say, things have gone as they should. however, operations are still ongoing. >> yes, tell us about the search and rescue operation. how much hope is there that they might still find people alive? >> well, as you can imagine, hopes fade. as time passes. we have been searching there 72 hours and we haven't found a single survivor for at least 36 harris now so from what we've heard from the victims, the capsizing was pretty intense. so i think that the news won't be good for everyone being blow -- below deck.

>> those are 10th some grim stick. what else have survivors been telling you about their ordeal? >> as you can imagine, we were mainly focused on treating them. there are other special departments focused on their psychological support. however, what we saw is people suffering, trying to find a better tomorrow for them because they don't know what lies ahead. they were trying to take as much clothing as they could because they wouldn't know where they would be tomorrow. and judging by their small cuts and bruises on their hands and bodies, they struggled to escape the bolt. >> that is such a difficult

situation with you thank you very much for speaking us to in the midst of this. a volunteer doctor for the helenic red cross. thank you ve much. you're watching bbc news. this is "the context." we'll be back with much more so don't go away. narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. george: actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo.