thank you for joining us on this tuesday. today an extraordinary moment. just days from the one-year mark of russia s brutal war on ukraine, two world leaders, two cups kwngsal speeches, president biden in poland, reiterating america s support for ukraine and president putin in moscow blaming western nations for the escalating war. we will not tire. president putin s craving lust for land and power will fail and the ukrainian people s love for their country will prevail. ukraine will 1/never be a victo for russia, never. translator: the elite of the west do not conceal their ambition which is to defeat russia, finish us off once and for all. let me be frank, it is they who unleashed this war and we use force to stop them. happening as russian bombs continue to drop. a warning to viewers these next images out of ukraine are graphic. this was the scene in kherson this morning. russian shelling killing at least five people and this time it was a market that was targeted. p
hello and welcome to bbc news. it is good to have your company here. we begin with international news. pope francis has addressed worshippers in the vatican this morning. his address follows the death of his predecessor, benedict xvi. the former pope will be lying in state in st peter s basilica from monday to allow mourners to pay their respects until his funeral on thursday. pope francis celebrated mass for the solemnity of mary in the vatican, and afterwards he paid tribute to his predessecor in st peter s square. translation: the beginning . of the new year is for mary most holy, who we celebrate today as mother of god. at this time, let s invoke her intercession, especially for pope benedict xvi, who left this world yesterday morning. let us alljoin together with one heart and one soul in thanking god for the gift of this faithful servant of the gospel and of the church. we saw recently, on the television, his images and all of the activities and life of pope benedict. o
hello and welcome to bbc world news. pope francis has addressed the thousands of people who gathered at st peter s square in the vatican, a day after the death of benedict xvi. the pope described his predecessor as a faithful servant of the gospel and the church. our religion editor aleem maqbool is at the vatican. we heard from pope francis a couple of times today, first at a mass for peace that was held in st peter s basilica behind me. he talked about entrusting our beloved pope emeritus benedict xvi, to the holy mother, to accompany him from this world to god. and then later, pope francis appeared at a balcony here at the vatican for what is his regular sunday lunchtime homily, where he started this week by asking people to join together, as you rightly say, to pray for the man he called a faithful servant to the gospel and to the church. extraordinary scenes, though. we saw thousands of people pour into the square from every side. vatican police told us a short while ago
well several things. first off, i m very pleased he went to ukraine and then went to poland and delivered this speech because what he s doing is laying out the case, why ukrainian s fight for freedom is america s fight as well. that it is important to the united states that ukraine be victorious in this war. the follow on from this should be that we accelerate our support for ukraine. we ve been a bit slow in the way we provided support over the past year. we need to help the ukrainians win more quickly. it s too early for a victory lap but great he s out there saying that we are committed. i want to talk to you more about that in a moment, but president putin also gave his speech this morning, and he made a pointed announcement about suspending participation in the start nuclear treaty. do you think there s any significance to that at this moment? not really. they weren t full implementing
just in the capital city for several hours, but traveling to and from on a train. there were lots of parts of that speech that are going to resonate with ukrainians. kyiv standing tall and free. ukrainians love for their country that will prevail. you travel across the country, when speaking with troops they recognize the fact they are fighting against a bigger and better equipped enemy and president zelenskyy talks about this being a david and goliath fight and they will win because they re fighting for their country s existence. president biden talking about what s happening on the ground that makes it sound like he understands the atrocities the people are facing, the crimes against humanity and that, of course, as you and i have discussed the recent escalation of the way that the u.s. is looking at what is going on here