sarah rainsford, as always, - russia's war on ukraine. sarah rainsford, as always, thank. sford, as always, thank you for bringing that to us and we will come back to you throughout that protest taking place in berlin. dozens of people have been killed when israel launched numerous air strikes in both gaza and lebanon. in northern gaza, a multi—storey building housing palestinians has been struck in beit lahia. officials from gaza's civil defence agency say at least 26 people were killed in an israeli air strike, with more than 50 trapped in the rubble. six families were living in the stricken building. the israeli military says it is investigating the reports. there have been israeli strikes elsewhere in gaza. these pictures of al—aqsa martyrs hospital in deir al—balah were filmed by our freelancer as israel does not allowjournalists free access to gaza. children were among those injured taken to the hospital. and these are live pictures from beirut, where an israeli air strike is reported to have killed hezbollah�*s media chief, mohammed afif — one of the few remaining pu

sarah rainsford, thank you.ovychenko, who co—runs the future of ukraine programe at the university of cambridge. i wonder if i could pick up on how much this is tied to the fact that donald trump is going to be us president injanuary. i absolutely agree. it is raising the stakes on the part of vladimir putin. therefore, the strikes of the ballistic missiles will continue, just to test the fear of the collective west and send a message to donald trump that putin doesn't want to give up, even if the components for the missiles, which i agree with the previous speaker, are being produced by china and some of the russian allies. therefore, we welcome some of the sanctions being addressed yesterday by the united states in the 61 banks that are allowing some of the financial operations of the russian federation to include these components in the missiles. that is the message to donald trump and to the collective west to test how much fear there might be, not on in the politicians, where political campaigns are going o

sarah rainsford, bbc news, warsaw.russia candidate has taken an unexpected lead in the first round of romania's presidential election. calin georgescu has no political party, and is known as the tiktok candidate after he used the social media platform to galvanise his support by calling for an end to aid for ukraine. he has also sounded a sceptical note on romania's nato membership. georgescu's will face the pro—europe prime minister and leader of the social democrats, marcel ciolacu, in the second round of voting in two weeks�* time. 0ur central europe correspondent, nick thorpe is in budapest — he explained more about what do we know about calin georgescu. it is a surprise. mr georgescu, he's 62 years old. he does have a certain amount of experience in the united nations. for example, he's an expert on sustainable development. his radicalism has come from and his standing up for romanian patriotism. this has come in a series of interviews in the past weeks and months. but really the key to his success has been his ab

sarah rainsford, bbc news, warsaw.e lead in the first round of romania's presidential election. calin georgech has no political party, and is known as the tiktok candidate, after he used the social media platform to galvanise his support by calling for an end to aid for ukraine. he has also sounded a sceptical note on romania's nato membership. meanwhile, georgia's parliament has met for the first time since last month's disputed election, with large crowds of opposition protesters gathering outside. demonstrators in tbilisi — many of whom spent the night camped on the streets — say the election win by the georgian dream party was fraudulant. opposition members of parliament have refused to take up their seats and the president of georgia declined to fulfil her role of opening the first session, describing it as unconstitutional. let's speak to dr mihail chiru, the oxford university's department of politics and international relations. thank you forjoining us. let's start with what is happening in rumania, because that

let's speak to our eastern europe correspondent, sarah rainsford, who is in warsaw.nce this change in us policy could make. it is interesting, _ policy could make. it is interesting, i— policy could make. it is interesting, i think, - interesting, ithink, because it comes after that other change in policy, which was to allow the use of longer range us missiles for ukraine to fire at targets within russia. hot on the heels of that rapid change in policy is this one, which isjoe biden reversing his position that he wouldn't provide antipersonnel landmines to ukraine, suddenly seeing that they will be supplied. we don't know how many, but we do know this is controversial. that is whyjoe biden has avoided taking this step until this point, but both the pentagon and the white house have told the bbc that this will happen, that they are what they describe as nonpersistent landmines, which are the type that will lose charge over a period of time and therefore not be dangerous for long, prolonged periods of time. the problem with landmines is the large civilian casualties th

i'm joined now by our eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford who is monitoring events for us fromnd who is monitoring events for usjessica parker who florida. and jessica parker who is in florida. sarah, to start with you, what are the ukrainian saying about these attacks today and overnight? the report came from _ today and overnight? the report came from the _ today and overnight? the report came from the air _ today and overnight? the report came from the air force - today and overnight? the report came from the air force in - came from the air force in ukraine which said there was an attack on dnipro with a variety of missiles and it mentioned what it described as an intercontinental ballistic missile being used in that attack, between five and six o'clock this morning, attacking industry and infrastructure as far as the statement said, and as people scramble for information because this would be a major change in the conflict, the use of a very different missile, something that can reach thousands of kilometres, potentially, so in the scramble for information, there came at s

our eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford has been looking at the world leaders' reaction to putin'sent. the message from vladimir putin was clearly meant as a warning to ukraine and ukraine's western allies that russia is prepared to continue to escalate and respond to steps ta ken by ukraine and its allies. mr putin was portraying the use of this oreshnik experimental ballistic hypersonic missile by russia against ukraine as a response to the use of american and british—made missiles by ukraine to target russia. he was saying that that was his response and he said if there's a further escalation, russia decisively to that. the idea is that we are now at a plateau again. unless there's another step that mr putin decides is escalatory, this is where we are. the use of the missile was meant to send a message. it would usually carry a nuclear warhead. on this occasion, it was a regular warhead. but the messaging was clear. the west was supposed to be scared into scaling back its support for ukraine, which is why volodymyr zelensky of ukraine came out with his own strong statement. he s

let's speak to our eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford who's in warsaw.s through the attacks on the energy sector. this was a massive and combined attack, a mixture of missiles and drones. it has happened as before, which is russia sends a huge wave of drones at ukraine, in this case right across the country and then follows up with missiles. the drones us must keep the air defence is busy so the missiles have a better chance of getting through. ukraine's airforces through. ukraine's air forces have through. ukraine's airforces have said that around 110 drones and missiles were shot down but they say in total 188 were launched. it does look like there was some missiles that got through. it appears, according to statements from ukrainian officials and information on the ground, it appears that the target has been critical infrastructure in ukraine, right across the country. we have heard in the far west that nearly half a million people are experiencing emergency power outages, no power at all and hundreds of thousands in other parts of the country. it is

here is the bbc�*s eastern europe correspondent, sarah rainsford, with the latest on the attack.ixture of missiles and drones. it's happened as it has happened before, which is that russia sends a huge wave of drones to ukraine, in this case, right across the country, and then follows up with missiles. the drones are supposed to keep the air defences busy, so that the missiles then have a better chance of getting through. now, in this case, ukraine's air forces have just said that altogether, around about 110 or so drones and missiles were shot down. but they say in total, 188 were actually launched. so it does look like some of those missiles and drones did get through. and it appears, according to the statements coming from ukrainian officials and from information on the ground, it does appear that the target, yet again, has been critical infrastructure in ukraine, right across the country. so we've heard from lviv in the far west that that some half a million people are now experiencing emergency power outages. so blackouts, no power at all and hundreds of thousands in other p

our eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford explained what difference the change in policy could other change in policy, which was to allow the use of longer—range us missiles for ukraine to fire at targets within russia. so, hot on the heels of that rapid change in policy is this one, which isjoe biden reversing his position that he wouldn't provide anti—personnel landmines to ukraine and suddenly saying that they will now be supplied. we don't know when, we don't know how many. we do know that this is controversial, and that's whyjoe biden has avoided taking this step until this point. but both the pentagon and the white house have told the bbc that this will happen, that they are what they're describing as nonpersistent landmines, which are the type which will lose charge over a period of time and therefore not be dangerous for long, prolonged periods of time. because, of course, the concern with landmines is always the large number of civilian casualties that they can cause and the huge amount of time that it takes to clear territory where landmines have been deployed in fron

sarah rainsford sent this report the crowd are shouting freedom to political prisoners.o vladimir putin's rule in russia and an end to the war in ukraine. a lot of the chanting has been about ukraine, people chanting no to war and chanting for more help for ukraine including more missiles to arm ukraine to defend itself. which is quite interesting because lots of people have criticised the russian opposition in the past for not supporting ukraine enough. do you feel russians have done enough to stop this war, to stop the suffering? i don't know what is enough because we are doing everything we can but it is never enough. i think we need help, we need help from the whole world. nothing like this is possible in russia today where the political repression is intense and even referring to the invasion of ukraine as a war is banned. that is why many people here found the importance of being here because they wanted their voices of opposition and protest to be heard. to say these things in europe they can no longer say in russia itself. there are millions of people in russia w

how eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford reports from warsaw.eople in places like this that might worry. becausejust be in places like this that might worry. because just be on the way in this tiny polish town is an american military base, one that russia has openly called a potential target. the site was opened officially this month, after a us missile defence opened officially this month, after a us missile defi when reports from warsaw. when vladimir putin threatens to escalate his war, it is people in places like this that might worry. becausejust be in places like this that might worry. because just be on the way in this tiny polish town is an american military base, one that russia has openly called a potential target. the site was opened officially this month, after a us missile defence shield to protect the skies over europe. then when russia fired hypersonic weapon at ukraine, vladimir putin 1

the government has so far not commented. 0ur eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford is in warsawout the use of these missiles? - know this is something of course ukraine has been pushing forfor a very long time. it has been discussed publicly for a very long time. countries like poland have also been asking and pushing for it for a very long time. we now have confirmation although nothing public, nothing official. certainly we know the american longer range missiles and british made storm shadow missiles had been used within russia by ukraine for the first time. that is a major change was something that had been resisted for quite some time. as far asjoe biden is concerned, he gave american—made missiles consent to be used. that was the kind of, i think, that thing that push this into actually happening. as for the reaction, there has been nothing official, nothing public from russia so far, particularly on the use of the british storm shadow missiles. what we do know is over the past week or so, vladimir putin has made it known he has lowered the threshold for you using a nuclea