i've been speaking to tom burridge, who's in southern ukraine. i asked tom how significant this latest british involvement is. >> reporter: i think it's symbolic. i don't think anyone's suggesting that it will shift the military balance in the east of ukraine in any real ways but these instructors have arrived and have been working for a few days can ukrainian troops training them in first aid and military tactics. and that tallies with the fact that the west have only supplied non-lethal military aid to the ukrainian army things like sleeping bags, laptops gps system, the u.s. is providing radars and surveillance drones. it's a symbolic move but well received, of course by the ukrainian public government and military. i think, though there is a debate here in ukraine and there are calls for the west to go that one step further and to arm the ukrainian military. but, of course countries like britain haven't taken that option off the table. for now, they don't seem like doing it anytime soon. >> we've come to see this as a sort of east versus west

the bbc's tom burridge has been to a factory in donetsk, where rebels say they're repairing tanks that seized from the ukrainian military. >> reporter: inside this factory in donetsk, the main city here in eastern rebel-controlled ukraine, is a pretty impressive selection of military hardware and tanks. now, the rebels say that they see all of these vehicles over the past few weeks and months from the ukrainian army. and what they say they're doing is essentially stripping down some of the parts and using them on others. you can see this tank has been opened up in the back here where the engine is and simply doing some kind of work here. and the best example, possibly is this tank over here, which has been completely stripped down. and you can see the huge gun at the front. these are soviet-era vehicles dating back possibly to the '70s and '80s. the rebels say they're getting no new parts from russia. and they claim they have no idea what will happen to these vehicles after they're repaired. but clearly they brought them here for a reason. that reason is probably to send a message to t

. >> tom burridge there in southern ukraine. >>> now, here's some handshakes going on as japan and china holding their first high-level security talks in four years. the meeting taking place in tokyo involves officials from the foreign and the defense ministries. these talks were suspended back in 2011 because of tension over the disputed islands in the east china sea. well, both sides have stressed the importance of sincere dialogue to maintain peace. i've been speaking to our correspondent in beijing, martin patience, who gave us more about what these talks represent. >> for four years, we had no talks between the two countries. we had rising tensions between china and japan over these disputed islands in the east china sea. the big fear was that potentially, some sort of accident could even trigger a conflict, but what we have seen in recent months is i think, a recognition of the diplomatic as well as the economic cost of those tensions. late last year china's president met his japanese counterparts. they held talks for the first time. it was a pretty icy affair. both sides were play