and counterclaim from both sides. both sides are reporting heavy losses. and as we have been hearing, this counteroffensive is going to take many months, really the focus has been on the spring and now very much the summer offensive, which will last until about october or november before the rainy season begins. and as we have also reported, it is quite difficult to fight when the weather becomes colder. it becomes difficult for the tanks that go off road to be operating on wetland. so, they had this window where they need to try and make as many gains as possible. joining me live from fife in scotland, kezia dugdale, former leader of the scottish labour party, and from washington, bryan lanza, republican strategist and former director of communications in donald trump s transition team. looking at these developments in ukraine, this counteroffensive is something that has been anticipated for a while now. keep has been quick to talk about successes, but brian, these are small
what we have seen is a good deal of criticism as strategy that they should have allowed themselves to focus so largely on the front rather than focusing more specifically in the region. now what ukrainian officials and military sources tell us is that they believe this will be a winning strategy. these small successes that you re seeing ain and of themselves, it will force russian forces to consolidate their positions and hope allow breaches further along the line. melissa bell in kyiv, thank you. let s bring in senator coons, a member of the house foreign relations committee and chair of the appropriations subcommittee for foreign aid. good to see you let s begin with the war in ukraine. is there a concern that the counteroffensive isn t achieving its goals and that russia may
russia completely. it is trying to stave off the idea of any kind of peace negotiation while it sees it as still being in his control, trying to force rush out completely. as you say, since you were here, ukraine has taken only a few kilometres and while there has been an increase in the intensity and where seen, these aren t the scenes were seen last year where it ukraine use the elements of supply surprise. because of these marginal gains on the tiny villages are being liberated which i ve long been reduced to rubble. you had the comments of expose when today who claims that ukraine s counteroffensive isn t going to plan and that we russia words it is that nato supplies and equipment have
ski acknowledging the counteroffensive isn t going as quickly and the territorial gains are not going exactly as anticipated. that s because they couldn t start as early as originally planned because of lack of ammunition and armaments and lack of training, however, he does maintain, the counteroffensive is making good progress despite the setbacks we ve seen in days and weeks. with heard from general mark milley the counter offense issue has gone slower than expected but is far from a failure in his words and it s simply too early to tell, too early to call at this stage. of course, there are numerous attacks ongoing in the eastern region, setbacks. a key priority, according to president zelenskyy is, in his words, neutralizing the bridge, the bridge which connects russia to crimea.
russia s crimean bridge. a ukrainian official says that naval drones carried out that strike. thviolence playing out as russia formally announced that it will noonger allow ukraine to export grain by way of the black sea. the united nations condemned that move, warning that this could cause food prices to rise and worsen global hunger. now, joining us now from kyiv is a correspondent for the financial times christopher miller. he is the author of a new book, the war came to us. life and death in ukraine, which is out right now. chris, thank you for joining us. you ve spent so much time in ukraine. you re there right now. i wonder, what is your view of this counteroffensive? how it is going and how that strike that we were just talking about on the crimean bridge plays into it. right. so we heard president volodymyr zelenskyy admit in recent days that the counteroffensive isn t going exactly according to plan. and ukrainian soldiers on the front line who i visited just