he sent this report from a village near blahodatne.s. explosions. the air thickens with artillery and expectation. ukrainian guns pound the russian positions... ..and their enemy soon responds. nearby explosions. but it's a miss. yuri, of the drone unit, cannot wait for the shelling to stop. the drones he's sending to enemy trenches carry grenades and smoke bombs. they lose as many as five of these a day. and there's more than just artillery to contend with. the russian helicopters and russian jets fire every area. every day. every time. explosion. go to shelter. 0k. good luck. he just illustrated that point very well, that one of the big advantages that the russians have over the ukrainians is airpower. the ukrainians are attacking on the ground, but the russians still have helicopters, still have warplanes. it makes it much more difficult for them to advance. that full report in the next hour but earlier, he gave us the latest from dnipro. but earlier, he gave us the latest from dnipro-_ but earlier, he gave us the latest from dnipro

on a hot day, east of blahodatne, the ukrainian attack begins.ukrainian guns pound the russian positions, and their enemy soon responds. but it's a miss. yuri of the drone unit can't delay until the shelling stops. the drones he's sending to enemy trenches carry grenades and smoke bombs. they lose as many as five of these a day. and there's more than just artillery to content with. there are some helicopters and russianjets, that fire every day, so every time... explosion go to shelter. 0k~ _ good luck. he just illustrated that point very well, that one of the big advantages that the russians have over the ukrainians is airpower. the ukrainians are attacking on the ground but the russians still have helicopters, still have war planes. it makes it much more difficult for them to advance. the battle won, the danger is far from over. as we make our way back from the trenches, more russian artillery fire targets andrii's convoy. we need to move fast. and the 49—year—old commander carries an extra burden — the memory of his son. this is the helmet of

on a hot day east of blahodatne, the ukrainian attack begins.y soon responds. but it is a mess. yuri of the drone unit can't delay until the shelling stops. the drones he is sending to enemy trenches carry grenades and smoke bombs. they lose as many as five of these a day. and there is more than just artillery to contend with. than 'ust artillery to contend with. ., than 'ust artillery to contend with. . ,., , ., with. there are reports of russian — with. there are reports of russian jets _ with. there are reports of russian jets firing - with. there are reports of russian jets firing every l with. there are reports of i russian jets firing every day, every time. go russian jets firing every day, every time-— russian jets firing every day, every time. go to shelter. ok. good luck- _ every time. go to shelter. ok. good luck. he _ every time. go to shelter. ok. good luck. he just _ every time. go to shelter. ok. good luck. he just illustrated. good luck. hejust illustrated that point very well, that one of the big advantage is that the russians ha

on a hot day, east of blahodatne, the ukrainian attack begins.s with artillery and expectation. ukrainian guns pound the russian positions, and their enemy soon responds. but it's a miss. yuri of the drone unit can't delay until the shelling stops. the drones he's sending to enemy trenches carry grenades and smoke bombs. they lose as many as five of these a day. and there's more than just artillery to content with. there are some helicopters and russianjets, that fire every day, so every time... explosion. go to shelter. 0k. good luck. he just illustrated that point very well, that one of the big advantages that the russians have over the ukrainians is airpower. the ukrainians are attacking on the ground but the russians still have helicopters, still have war planes. it makes it much more difficult for them to advance. the battle won, the danger is far from over. as we make our way back from the trenches, more russian artillery fire targets andrii's convoy. we need to move fast. and the 49—year—old commander carries an extra burden — the memory o

it is not far from the settlements of blahodatne, and we have been reporting about blahodatne just yesterdayrea. and neskuchne as well as makarivka. these were the first ukraine said it liberated on sunday and we have been keeping our audiences up—to—date on those in the last 2a hours. footage on social media which the bbc has not yet verified shows troops hosting the ukrainian flag. so some developments at there, although it is difficult to verify a lot of this. we are getting the information from social media, and are bbc verify team is working away to try to verify the footage we are getting from the front lines. we do know the pace of things, while we are hearing about the liberation of these villages according to the ukrainian forces, it is still early days and the russian side is reporting that there are huge casualties on the ukrainian side. the ukrainian side is saying the same thing, so we are being cautious about what we are reporting. joining me now is ukraine's former president, also an mp for the committee of ukraine eu integration. so the counteroffensive has begun. these are s

on a hot day east of blahodatne, the ukrainian attack begins. explosions.ns pound the russian positions... ..and their enemy soon responds. but it's a miss. yuri, of the drone unit, cannot wait for the shelling to stop. the drones he's sending to enemy trenches carry grenades and smoke bombs. they lose as many as five of these a day. and there's more than just artillery to contend with. the russian helicopters and russian jets fire every area. every day. every time. explosion. go to shelter. 0k. good luck. he just illustrated that point very well, that one of the big advantages that the russians have over the ukrainians is airpower. the ukrainians are attacking on the ground, but the russians still have helicopters, still have warplanes. it makes it much more difficult for them to advance. and quentin is now back in dnipro for us. just tell us what you have been seeing there. is that the main ukrainian counteroffensive or are these probing attacks by the ukrainians? i these probing attacks by the ukrainians?— these probing attacks by the ukrainians? ~ , .,

outside the village of blahodatne.krainians were successful laying down smoke grenades, their infantry vehicles across minefields attacking russian positions, it was attacking russian positions, it was a win for them that day but very small in the grand scheme of things. when we were on the ground we got a sense of the fierceness of the fighting. we saw lots of russian corpses, a number of destroyed ukrainian american built armoured vehicles and the ukrainian troops we spoke to said they had taken a lot of casualties. what ukraine is attempting the moment is it has a number of these points where it is attacking russian positions in the east, southeast and further along. but it is very slow going progress. they are trying to stretch russian resources and land they are trying to stretch russian resources and [and power and weaponry and when they see a gap, we might see that main force being held in reserve at the moment with the british challenger tanks join the battle and exploit any weakness they find but that could be

verified by the bbc — shows troops hoisting the ukrainian flag in the neighbouring settlements of blahodatnekuchne in the donetsk region. kyiv�*s deputy defence minister said nearby makarivka was also taken. this comes just one day after president volodymyr zelensky confirmed that the counteroffensive had begun. meanwhile, a moscow court has detained a us musician on drug charges. the court claimed michael travis leake had organized the sale of drugs to young people. leake has denied the charges and in a video shared online says he doesn't know why he was being detained. a us state department spokesperson says it is closely monitoring the case and that staff attended his court hearing on saturday. leake is the third american detained in russia the last few years. earlier i spoke about all of this with kurt volker, former us ambassador to nato and former us special representative for ukraine. thank you for taking the time to speak to us. ukraine reporting its first progress in the longawaited counteroffensive, reclaiming these small settlements. what is your reaction to that news? this is not

the country, in the donetsk region, where we are getting reports that the area of niskayuna and blahodatneviser of the defence ministry who said, look, these are small villages, but every village matters to us, big or small, when they're retaken from russian forces. this is something that we want to highlight and discuss. but i also spoke to the head of the horizon region. of the kherson region. this was before this attack had taken place and information was coming out. i asked him what how things were developing in kherson and how the evacuations were taking place. and bearing in mind i did speak to him before we got news of this latest attack which killed three people. butjust have a listen to what he had to say. so let's say there are two types of support that we need. one is the support for citizens who lost everything they had from kettles to bed sheets. and another way of of support that is needed is equipment to liquidate the consequences of this tragedy that happened on the power plant. so we speak about pumps for pumping out water, excavators while you're dealing with this emergen

verified by the bbc — shows troops hoisting the ukrainian flag in the neighbouring settlements of blahodatnerby makarivka was also taken. this comes just days after president volodymyr zelensky confirmed that the counter—offensive had begun. 0ur correspondent mayeni jones had this update from the capital, kyiv. the significance of these settlements is probably more symbolic on the part of ukrainian forces. they are the first announcement is the authorities here have made of any advance since they said their counteroffensive started on saturday but it is worth emphasising these are very small villages. they have a combined population of less than 2000 people. some analysts are saying it's also not clear whether they are beyond the first line of defence of russian forces, so it's not actually clear whether ukrainian forces have breached that initial line of russian defence. 0ne breached that initial line of russian defence. one thing is sure, is that the ukrainian authorities are keen to emphasise the counter offense's has started in earnest, that they are making progress, and they are keen to

verified by the bbc, shows troops hoisting the ukrainian flag in the neighbouring settlements of blahodatneputy defence minister said nearby makarivka was also taken. this comes just one day after president volodymyr zelensky confirmed that the counter—offensive had begun. live now to alexander gillespie, professor of international law at the university of waikato in new zealand. the last time we had a conversation was just after the destruction of that significant dam on the south of ukraine, these latest developments show verify that ukraine is taking ground from russia. from your point of view, in terms of the law, talk us through these latest developments? first one is not that _ latest developments? first one is not that they _ latest developments? first one is not that they are _ latest developments? first one is not that they are reclaiming l is not that they are reclaiming ground from russia they are reclaiming what is there that is legallyjustifiable because is legally justifiable because it is legallyjustifiable because it is their territory. with regards to the law we have to thi

this is from an village called blahodatne.n also see ukrainian soldiers hoisting the flag and this is also from that area, russian armoured vehicle with soldiers nearby. if we have a look at where these four villages are in the broader context, you can see that they all run along this river alongside a main road that heads south towards the sea. they are still a fair way away from russia's line of fortification, which is marked at the bottom of this image in white. it is still about 20 kilometres before they reach that line. if we have a look at that line and a bit more detail this is what it tends to look like. usually you will have an anti—tank ditch, followed by some network of trenches. if we look at even greater detail at each of those, this is what the anti—tank ditch looks like. you can see it is being done here. it is a vast distance that makes it difficult for armoured vehicles and tanks to cross, and this makes it difficult these so dragon's teeth. it is another line of defence, and beyond that, trenches. this is sti

it is not far from the settlements of blahodatne. footage on social media shows troops.arby village was taken while ukraine says it's continued to make gains in its counteroffensive. they appear to be relatively minor and still away from russia's main fortified line. we have a lot of reporting from our correspondence and experts on our live page. frank gardner was earlier reporting that these are all distractions. it is these are all distractions. it is the land bridge that connects russian forces in crimea that is the price. that is what the ukrainian forces are hoping to focus on. we are hearing a lot about these smaller villages. they don't have large populations. when i spoke to ukrainian military officials they say that big or small, this is ukrainian land and we are going to do whatever we can to retake them. in the past hour we have been following another story on the crimean peninsula. ukraine's military intelligence is that russia is preparing to evacuate the town of armiansk. we have been reporting about the breach of the dam which has devastated homes and left

on a hot day east of blahodatne, the ukrainian attack begins. explosions.drones he's sending to enemy trenches carry grenades and smoke bombs. they lose as many as five of these a day. and there's more than just artillery to contend with. the russian helicopters and russian jets fire every area. every day. every time. explosion. go to shelter. 0k. good luck. he just illustrated that point very well, that one of the big advantages that the russians have over the ukrainians is airpower. the ukrainians are attacking on the ground, but the russians still have helicopters, still have warplanes. it makes it much more difficult for them to advance. we will play the full report in the next hour. now straight to westminster. that debate has just got under way, penny mordaunt at the dispatch box so for the next couple of hours westminster is going to be fully focused on the debate on that privileges committee report that was so damning for borisjohnson last week. we have to future generations that will sit in this place too. mr speaker, on the 21st of april, 2022, th