from their western allies. day by day, president putin is destroying more cities and gaining more ground in a war which nato has warned could last for years. orla guerin, bbc news, donbas. the latest figures in the uk suggest covid cases are continuing to rise across the country. an estimated 1.7 million people had coronavirus last week, around 1 in 35 of the population. that s a jump of 23% from the previous week. health officials have said that more than half of covid cases are driven by newer strains of the omicron variant, baa and ba.5, which spread more quickly. they ve stressed again the importance of getting vaccinated. we ve very little evidence that it causes more severe disease. however, we are concerned that there are a number of people, particularly in the higher risk groups, the over 75s or those
thank you. so for joining us. as you know, ukraine now says the russian offensive on the eastern donbas region has officially begun. do you expect russia to learn from its mistakes around kyiv, the capital? take the upper hand in this new phase of this brutal war? yeah, you know, the russians are not stupid. they will learn from the mistakes they ve made. they re in a very different situation now, wolf. and it is important that people understand this. they now have much shorter supply lines. they re not nearly as extended as they were. they re now in the open. they re now in positions that they re somewhat familiar with. because they ve been assisting the breakaway regions of ukraine for some time now. so everything is different. that s why our support. ukrainians needs to be different as well. critical now, and i m glad to see the white house in fact is doing this. critical now will be heavier weaponry. they can strike the russians at long distance.
Russia was focusing its offensive, which included cruise missiles launched by its naval forces, on the eastern Donbas region, the British ministry said in a daily briefing.
later? clarified the president was not discussing putin s power in russia or regime change. ukrainian officials reportedly three explosions near leave after russian missile strikes appear to target and oil depot. the attack happened 50 miles from ukraine s border with poland. one day after russia said it would shift strategies and focus on liberating the donbas region. russian forces reportedly have released the mayor of the city in northern ukraine who may been holding captive and reportedly agreed to leave the town near the grenoble nuclear site after ukrainians continue protesting for the mayor s release despite russian gunfire overhead. alex hogan is back live in lviv ukraine right now. the attacks we saw here were the closest to the center we ve