ben hodges there. says the north of england is the big winner of the second round of levelling up money. the fund is for projects to help regenerate part of the country. critics say large sums have been handed to london and southeast, but rishi sunak says per head of population, actually the big winner is the north of england. well the money is one through a competitive bidding process also we can talk now to alex norris, labour's shadow levelling up minister who canjoin us from nor london. —— north london. the reality is the prime minister can try and spin the statistics as much as he wants, but once again we are seeing communities having to go cap in hand, have hunger games style to beg the government for crimes of money for their community. some of whom we are very pleased for today, but they are generally worse off due to cuts to their council budgets. so this is just another phase of the government's levelling up programme. they want the press release but not to deliver it. 50 they want the press

usa ben hodges, yes, let's hear him.er bombs will leave the russians with fewer places where they could hide, life is about to become very uncomfortable for the russian aviation fleet and those who deliver ammunition from the crimea over the land bridge and i hope soon for the repair teams on the kerch bridge. you know, i am one of the most peaceful and well, i try to at least be like correct people, but i have a question of a general philosophical nature. this means that ben hodge means he predicts a very uncomfortable one. that's how it is. yes, this is the case. this is life for the russian fleet. aviation for those who deliver something from the crimea for repairs of brigades on the kerch bridge. that's what it 's called and so on. and what devil? uh hodgess such a comfortable life and those who supply have ammo to kill russian people why do they still have such a comfortable life? it seems to me that there is some kind of unfair imbalance, you know, dear friends. well, here's the sequel. quote to you on the same top

laura: for more on where the war in ukraine stands, i spoke to general ben hodges, former commander of.s. army in europe. do you see these joint drills between russia and belarus as of prelude to a new ground defense by russia? gen. hodges: i think russia is using belarus as a place to train to are for an eventual new offensive in the spring, but i do not think it would come from the direcon of belarus because lukashenko does not want that to happen. i think he is continuing his game of, be accommodating to the point he does not get annexed, but i think he also knows most people and belarus do not have any interest in a fight with ukraine. the constant exercises, moving stuff in and out of belarus, those keep the ukrainians and us looking north and thinking of the possibility, which helps the russians. i do not think it will come out of there, not in a significant way. laura: president putin has been quick to claim it is a positive trend. what do you make of that? gen. hodges: they will want to make as much out of it as they can to demonstrate success. i think it will be limited in its

russian occupation by the fall, the former commander of the us army in europe , retired general ben hodgesde such a prediction on his twitter account. he wrote that if partners continue to support ukraine and provide the promised aid and maintain sanctions against russia, then ukraine will liberate crimea by the end of august or even faster if the west provides us with high-precision weapons with a longer range, 2023 is the year of restarting relations with the entire african continent, this is stated in the statement of the ministry of foreign affairs of ukraine the priority in this direction was set by the president of ukraine even last year, since february 22, zelenskyi had 18 conversations with african leaders, nine of which , for the first time in the history of bilateral relations, ukraine was also visited by the president of guinea-bissau and the current head of the economic community of west african states umaru m -ballo of ukraine in the future plans to effectively interact with african capitals in this connection , the opening of a number of new embassies is planned, the ministry

e 160 km so hope for them and openly gloats ex-commander of the us army in europe ben hodges. i forgot about our air defense s-300 s400, not only the crimeans will beat the americans in the teeth they crash. so you know regularly drones, are they above sevastopol or below? sevastopol but the whole of great russia is behind the crimea the whole russian army the entire russian navy, so uh, beat on the crimea but it’s more expensive for yourself at first washington hoped to starve russia to exhaust its forces so that moscow would make concessions. we are not going, and the pentagon, spinning the flywheel of the military-industrial complex, was going to take a risk for, uh, the administration, therefore, as they again declare themselves. it 's kind of an attempt. that's to end the current ukrainian crisis. she's good for herself conditions. on this, they do not calculate the risks of what will happen if, for example, russia is very sharp at this hotel, because this is really a rather serious escalation, and the irresponsible position on the part of the united states is an obvious

defenseexpress group well, the former commander of the united states army in europe lieutenant general ben-hodges predicts that ukraine will liberate russian-occupied crimea by the end of august if the west continues to provide the promised aid and maintains sanctions against russia. at 4:00 p.m., i will hand over the floor to our newsroom in the person of iryna koval. congratulations, iryna takes over the baton . i will tell you, wait for the 16th in ukraine news time on the espresso tv channel in the studio of iryna koval and just now about the most important shooting in the dnipro, eyewitnesses write that a woman drove a car into the territory of the church and started drifting the clergy called the police, the cops opened fire on the victim, there was a child in the passenger compartment. fortunately, no one was injured. an unknown person attacked the priest with a knife. an unknown person attacked the clergyman of the church of the moscow patriarchate in vinnytsia . this is stated in the message of the religious institution. hit the throat of the priest who made a remark, the attacker disobe

him, what will we wait for, and we will wait for them, there is interesting information from, er, ben hodgesr commander of the us forces in europe. he said that the struggle for the liberation of crimea from of illegal occupation will become a key factor in the ukrainian -russian war , he said this in an interview with the insider publication, crimea is the determining ground in this war, the government of ukraine understands that it cannot agree to russia maintaining control over crimea, hodzhus said, according to his conviction, ukraine will not be safe and will not be able to rebuild its economy while russia keeps crimea for the next few months, he said if you want, ukraine will create the conditions for the final liberation of crimea, and according to him, for this, ukraine needs long-range, high-precision weapons for example, attacks with the transfer of weapons capable of depriving russia of any hiding place after its missile and air strikes will allow ukraine to make crimea unusable for the russians, noted the wheels of kherson, kherson region yesterday another round of shelling with

current statement , especially since he is supported by this rhetoric and the american general ben hodges and the former special representative of the us government in ukraine, kurt volker, therefore, again, we do not only hope , but we help the ukrainian army in some way in order for our victory to happen and happen as quickly as possible well, our western partners are helping that army , there was information that the united states of america has already sent to ukraine the first batch of bradley fighting vehicles , 60 combat vehicles, and the united states of america hopes that the new combat equipment will strengthen the ability of the armed forces of ukraine to return the lost territories. well , colonel, we remember how we began. how did this great offensive of russia begin? we remember what equipment we possessed and what equipment we began to possess. for a whole year yesterday, biden said that the united states of america would not provide f16 aircraft , but also six months ago, hardly anyone would have thought that the americans would provide abrams, and germany two weeks ago, l

volodymyr , of our conversation, ben hodges - this is the former commander of the troops from the unitedof america in europe said that ukraine will not be safe as long as the russian federation controls crimea and said that the struggle for skippy island will become the key in russia's war against ukraine taking into account the statements of russia about the possible exit from the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons by the united states of america and the statements, in particular, of the deputy chairman of the security council of the russian federation, dmitry medvedev, that if suddenly something threatens crimea, then we will use all resources, this means including nuclear ones in order to protect their territory, well, how do they think it will come to this? i think that the use of these weapons will not be sufficient , for sure, russia must prepare for the fact that unknown drones will carry out strikes on its territory is possible at night or at the same time as it happens in the state of days in the morning er russia must prepare for the fact that after the change o

used with a range of 160 km, so hopefully and openly gloats ex-commander of the us army in europe ben hodges. well, well, i forgot about our air defense s-300 s400, not only the crimeans will hit the americans in the teeth, they shoot down. so you know regularly drones, e.g. over sevastopol or on for sevastopol, but behind the crimea is the whole of great russia, the whole of russia army, the entire russian navy, so, uh, hit the crimea. but it’s more expensive for itself. at first, washington hoped to starve russia out to exhaust its forces so that moscow would make concessions. we are not going, and the pentagon, spinning the flywheel of the military-industrial complex, was about to take a chance. yes, here is the administration of the bike, how are they? again, they say it themselves. it's kind of an attempt. that's to finish the lower ukrainian crisis. she favorable conditions. on this, they do not calculate the risks of what will happen if, for example, russia is very sharply at this hotel, because it really quite a serious escalation, but irresponsible position on the part of the united

phenomenon now it is impossible well, will the armed forces of ukraine go to the crimea yesterday, ben hodgesm the general of the united states of america, the former commander of the nato forces in europe said that by august the armed forces of ukraine will be able to retake the crimea from the russian army, so what are we entering this year with ? what year can it be what is the most important thing what are the prerequisites for this as they say there are markers that we understood where we are , what is with us and where will we move next before we start i want to say right away that you have subscribed to our e-channels in social networks e-e facebook telegram instagram instagram twitter look for espresso.tv there subscribe because there is always a lot of interesting and important information also subscribe to us on youtube like and like you can also join the support of the espresso tv channel there are certain rules if you want to help us work, develop and be the best to convey even more important information to us, of course, please join oleksandr musienko with us , director of the ce

few more news, and today they already talked about it, at least they quoted this general, general ben-hodges the former commander of nato forces in europe said that ukraine can liberate. well, he said so. ukraine will liberate crimea by the end of august 2023. well, here you can believe it or not and on the other hand, i perfectly understand that such a general says what should be said right now, on the one hand, it is clear that such a possibility exists, on the other hand, it is necessary to talk about it as much and as often as possible from different platforms and to different people and the military and politicians, political scientists, experts, public figures, so that in europe, in the united states of america, and in russia, too, they put up with the idea that crimea would return to ukraine, just as they had been talking for a long time about kherson becoming ukrainian again, and he was simply ukrainian he was occupied, and when in russia they shouted hoyda on the red square and talked about what they changed in the constitution, that now kherson is a part of the zaporizhia region an

well, will the armed forces of ukraine go to crimea yesterday, general ben hodges of the united statesf america, the former commander of nato forces in europe, said that by august, the armed forces of ukraine will be able to retake crimea from the russian army, so with what we enter this year, what kind of year can it be? what is the most important thing, what are the prerequisites for this, what , as they say, are the markers that we understood? subscribed to our e-channels on social networks e-e facebook telegram instagram instagram twitter look for espresso.tv there subscribe because there is always a lot of interesting and important information also subscribe to us on youtube like and like you can also join the support of the espresso tv channel there are certain rules if you want to help us work, develop and be better, convey even more important information to us, of course, please join oleksandr musienko with us, director of the center for military legal research, oleksandr i congratulate you and we are also with us, oleksiy holobutskyi, a political technologist. oleksiy, i congr

forces will be ready to move in the direction of crimea, however, earlier retired american generals ben hodges made predictions that crimea could be liberated by the end of this summer iryna matviychuk kostyantyn holobchyk voice of america to enlist the support of those who were not ready to even hear about ukraine to raise thousands of dollars to help the army and sacrifice her career for the sake of contributing to the victory, this was done by a ukrainian woman for reasons that with the beginning of a full-scale war, they devote all their time to supporting the motherland, they founded the cactus and trident volunteer movement and do everything that the topic of ukraine was heard every day in distant arizona, how three ukrainian women were able to unite people from other countries around them and sway the local community to their side, iryna will tell shynkarenko today we are standing in the grounds in phoenix in the usa to thank the armed forces of ukraine with a holiday thank you to our brave women girls boys and men for our protection for our support and we love you very much we apprecia

still be live, and when we already tear off our legs, well stop , stop running, you know, general ben-hodgesement yesterday that it is possible to liberate crimea by august. well, it is possible to liberate it, it is possible to liberate it earlier, this is again the statement of the general who once led nato troops in europe, but i want ask another way. please tell me , these are the troops that are now shelling kherson. for them, the retreat zone is the crimea, or are they in the zaporozhye occupied region, where they are resupplying, from there to here, where is the closest to them, where will they be driven suddenly, or will they retreat for an hour suddenly if well, when the armed forces of ukraine begin to press them harder, as shown in practice, when the armed forces begin to carry out a real counteroffensive against the russians, as a rule, they immediately retreat to hell, nevertheless, there is a rotational movement. sometimes there is a change in personnel, in principle, nothing nothing special that could somehow fall out of the usual context of the actions of the armed forces of

usa in europe ben hodges. well, well, i forgot about our air defense s-300 s-400.ot only the crimeans will hit the americans in the teeth, they shoot down. you know, drones regularly, e.g. over sevastopol or on the way to sevastopol. but the entire great russia is behind the crimea, the entire russian army, the entire russian navy, so, uh, hitting the crimea well, this is more expensive for yourself. at first washington hoped to starve russia out of its forces so that moscow would make concessions. we are not going and the pentagon is spinning the flywheel the military- industrial complex was going to take a chance. fuck the administration, so yes, as they again say themselves. it's kind of an attempt. that's to finish the current ukrainian crisis. it is beneficial for themselves on the terms and conditions. at the same time, they do not calculate the risks of what will happen if, for example, russia is very sharp on this, because this is really a rather serious escalation, and the irresponsible position on the part of the united states, she and this is an obvious

verbal demonstration of the capabilities of the former commander of the us army in europe, general ben hodgesay a little more. after all, he is now formally retired. it will soon become very uncomfortable for the russian air force fleet and ammunition suppliers who are being transported to the crimea and the repair teams of the kerch bridge. but the whole last year, at least in words of officials. washington rejected even the hypothetical possibility of transferring high-precision long-range weapons to ukraine. and suddenly a sharp transition to practical actions. the kremlin could not but pay attention to this. this will mean the conclusion of the conflict. nah, a new level of quality, which is certainly not to be trifled with. nothing good. from a global point of view in general, european security. at the same time, the united states is far from the only one who suddenly decided to increase and accelerate the supply of new weapons. kiev , the united kingdom recently promised a dozen of its challenger tanks, along with howitzers and shells for them. the netherlands are discussing the transf

. >> retired general ben hodges's commander of the u.s. army in europe.e argues the timeframe announced to deliver abrams in months, perhaps a year, is not fast enough. >> i'm disappointed. the amount of time it took to get to this decision, and the way the decision will be implemented, does not convey a sense of urgency the administration wants ukraine to win anytime soon. >> could the u.s. have gone faster? >> we always have a choice. if you want me to win, i will take the closest tanks i've got, those that are in storage on the ground in europe. >> nearly 90 tanks that could be deployed within weeks. >> the troops on those a gram -- abrams tanks that train, do gunnery, and put them on trains and send them to the front. >> the front may prove ukraine's biggest challenge yet. ukraine has recaptured some territory in the east and in the south. but ruian forces have been digging in. recapturing the occupied territory will require a lot of firepower. that is why the u.s. and european priority is the leopards. >> they played a key role if they get there in t

i'm also joined by general ben hodges. matt, how are recovery efforts going in dnipro?seeing more russian air strikes today? >> we have not seen that many more russian air strikes but we've seen them throughout the country over the weekend. now, the rescue effort is apparently still going on, though it sounds as though rescue workers have more or less given up hope of finding anyone else alive. a warning to viewers, some may find some of these images disturbing. >> reporter: ukrainian rescue workers still racing against the clock. struggling to reach the last wounded survivors of this terrifying attack. is there anybody alive, this man shouts? this is what was left after a russian missile slammed into this apartment building on saturday in dnipro, killing 40 people and injuring 75 more, including 14 children. a government adviser sharing what he says is the grief of a sister whose sibling was killed in the attack. my 15-year-old, super smart, super talented, super funny sister is gone. some 46 people remain missing. this woman told ukraine's channel 11, may you be curse

out front now retired lieutenant army general ben hodges. and general, i appreciate your time.woman at the end, i'll let the president do the thinking for us. that, of course, is what you hear from inside russia. but yet also you heard those men inside russia, their faces on camera willing to speak to cnn, willing to describe what they saw this war as a terrible mess and complete chaos. what does that say to you there's really anyone who's willing to do that now from russia and put their faces on that? >> well, erin, it's always difficult to know what russian people are really thinking because they don't have a free media. people are scared to speak out often. what really stuck with me is last september 500,000 russian military age males left the country rather than get mobilized. so that's a pretty loud statement there. >> so you -- when you look at what's happening in soledar, you're looking even more broadly than that, and of course it is brutal and the death toll there is terribly high. i know you believe that ukraine is going to be able to liberate crimea, which of course

nick: retired general ben hodges is the former commander of the u.s. army in europe. s the time frame announced today to deliver abrams in months, perhaps a year, isn't fast enough. lt. gen. hodges: i'm disaointed because the way -- the amount of time it took to get to this decision, and then the way that the decision is going to be implemented does not convey a sense of urgency that the administration wants ukraine to win anytime soon. nick: did it have a choice? could the u.s. have gone faster? lt. gen. hodges: of course. we always have a choice. but if you want me to win, i'm going to take the closest tanks i have got, which is a brigade's worth of m1's that are in storage here in -- on the ground in europe. nick: that's nearly 90 tas that hodges says could be deployed within weeks. lt. gen. hodges: get ukrainian troops on those abrams tanks that are parked in europe right now. let them train the gunnery, practice the tactics, and then put them on trains and send them to the front. nick: that front may prove ukraine's biggest challenge yet. in the last four months,

russian rear and strike, including in crimea, according to the ex-commander of us troops in europe ben hodges logic of development. at this stage, a certain tool is needed , we are faster, again, we understand our partners also understand this, they understand that with airplanes, for example, is it conditional for attack aircraft to cover manpower, and even more so the armored vehicles that they give us, but it is necessary in the same crimea excuse me, there are more than 100 warehouses of various specifications, and, of course, they need to be destroyed deliveries of 16 fighter jets in ukraine to the pentagon. secrets are lobbied by military officials to transfer aircraft from the us air force or give permission for their export and from third countries writes politicians against such deliveries europe represented by germany the question of combat aircraft is not worth it at all. i can only advise not to enter into a constant competition for higher rates, when it comes to weapons systems, as soon as one decision is made, then a new debate begins in germany. this looks frivolous and undermi

ben hodge with general ben hodge, he generally likes to call clearly.be liberated by ukraine by the end of august next year. that 's all in august, and i'll still read the interview , they say, do you believe that melitopol will be taken before the end of winter? no, i did not say that melitopol said. yes i wait until the end of winter. i remember that until mid-december he just repeated. well, since the wound -up ukraine will enter its own lines of demarcation in february for the period of february. last year already until the end of 22 years, and until the summer. uh, that means he will take the crimea before the summer. now suddenly he had already forgotten that just a few weeks ago he predicted that by the end of the year the output on this very line would be in february. yes, and already suddenly for some reason shifted. uh, the capture of the crimea, but you see, the most important thing is that no one asks him about it. oh well, calmly continues to carry this nonsense, well, it's called compare the level of expertise in general, of course, the wa

ben hodges, general hodges of the united states army. have it in front of me to do the full quote justice, but he says look, you take these things and you move forward. it is not the movies. lisa: there is a belief that there is a window of time for ukraine to make inroads before the spring. the weather could be on their side at all of these things. the issue that i have is they war is still going on and the tail risks are still there. this is really a huge effort on all sides to figure out how to grapple with it. tom: we see that with the euro this morning, stasis at 109 on the euro. futures deteriorating, nasdaq futures negative one, 2%. mr. jonathan ferro in london with jane foley, look for that. this is bloomberg. lisa: keeping you up-to-date with news from around the world with the first word, i'm lisa mateo. the u.s. and germany have overcome a disagreement that threatened to fracture ally unity. they have agreed to give their main battle tanks to ukraine. germany confirmed today it will send 14 of its leopard 2 tanks to ukraine an

ben hodges, former commanding general of the us army in europe, gave me his assement of the agreement nations have agreed to do working together. that's an important part of this and the purpose of having tanks for an armoured force, really an armoured fist they can be used to penetrate these russian defences that have been constructed over the past couple months and that will be necessary to help isolate crimea from the rest of russia and from russian occupied ukraine. crimea is the decisive terrain. ukraine would never be safe and able to rebuild its economy as long as russia occupies crimea. so this land force will be important to help isolate crimea. , ., will be important to help isolate crimea. , . , . crimea. understand the significance a little further, _ crimea. understand the significance a little further, tell _ crimea. understand the significance a little further, tell some _ crimea. understand the significance a little further, tell some of - crimea. understand the significance a little further, tell some of the - a little further, tell some of the practicalities even wit

if tomorrow we see tomahawks there, the question is in quantity and people who served, including ben hodgement in ukraine. why are these terms, if you supply equipment, why and why such a quantity? what is rotankov? well, according to the soviet stock, these are 10 british tanks, in my opinion, 14 memory does not change. yes, 14 tanks. here they supply the paladin, this is an american self-propelled gun. yes, yes, they don’t have in the division, 18. raisins take self-propelled guns, so 18, what are 18 self-propelled guns e at the front is a question, when they put them, then they talk about two to three months of training specialists, what does the americans testify to bet on a protracted conflict over strangers with his wife, a conflict that it is beneficial for them, they directly talk about it with the aim of inflicting, if not a direct military, then a political defeat on russia, a lowering of the status in the world, and you also need to be prepared for this. talked about the third world war, no, until the third world war. according to the scenarios that were developed, that is, ther

russian rear and strike, including on crimea, according to the ex-commander of us troops in europe, ben hodgeslogic of development at this stage, a certain tool is needed, we are faster , again, we understand our partners understand this too, they understand that with aircraft, for example, is attack aviation conditional to cover manpower, and even more so armored vehicles, which they give us, but it is necessary, in the same crimea excuse me, there are more than 100 warehouses of different, uh, specifications. and, of course, they need to destroy the supply of fighter jets to sixteen ukraine in the pentagon. the secret is lobbied by military officials the planes can transfer from the us air force or give permission for their exports from third countries , writes a politician against such deliveries europe represented by germany the question of combat aircraft is not worth it at all. i can only advise against getting into a constant competition to raise the stakes when it comes to weapon systems, as soon as one decision is made, a new debate starts in germany. this looks frivolous and undermin

joining me now is the former commander with the us army in europe, the retired general ben hodges. thankhey need them? what is auoin on it is. why do they need them? what is going on in _ it is. why do they need them? what is going on in the — it is. why do they need them? what is going on in the conflict _ it is. why do they need them? what is going on in the conflict that - is going on in the conflict that necessitates them? tt�*s is going on in the conflict that necessitates them?— is going on in the conflict that necessitates them? it's a perfect cuestion. necessitates them? it's a perfect question- they — necessitates them? it's a perfect question. they don't _ necessitates them? it's a perfect question. they don't need - necessitates them? it's a perfect question. they don't need them l question. they don�*t need them today. they need this armoured capability for the spring. i think the general staff recognises that they can pretty much stop russian offensive operations with what they have in hand and so they are thinking about what is really decisive, here? what is decisive is it