ironically, putin s denial of ukraine s identity has strengthened what he set out to destroy. my guest is olesya khromeychuk. writer, historian and sister of a fallen ukrainian soldier. even now, do ukraine s allies understand what the stakes really are in this war? olesya khromeychuk, welcome to hardtalk. thank you so much for inviting me, stephen. it s a great pleasure to have you in this studio in london. and you live in london. you re the director of the ukrainian institute here in london. you re an historian of ukraine and eastern europe. and yet, i am sure that a lot of your mind is in ukraine. what kind of a distance do you keep from the daily reality of your homeland being at war? perhaps only physical distance, i suppose. the distance that, i suppose, would take 2a hours or so to cross, because at the moment we can t fly to ukraine any more, and it takes about 2k hours to get to my hometown now, which the journey that usually would take me 2.5 hours to fly to my home
over the past 30 years or so, i ve covered conflicts in the middle east, in the balkans and in africa, but this is unlike anything that i have ever known. this is a war that we did not expect to see in europe in our time. there was a sense that the security architecture that we knew, the safety, the security, that we thought we had since the end of the cold war, that was gone. i was here injanuary and february of last year counting down to the invasion. i was sure it would come, but it turned out to be even worse than i expected. we were in mariupol, which is a port city in the east. it s only 30 miles from the russian border. but inside the city, there was this surreal atmosphere of calm. and i remember we went to film in a supermarket. there was no panic buying. the shelves were full. we met a lady called tatiana, who was 7a, and very feisty. and, i remember, she almost seemed angry that we had dared to ask the question, will the russians invade all? maybe it was denial. ma
to end the violence. now on bbc news the travel show. this week on the travel show, fire and fairness on a scottish island. i m a woman, and i have a daughter, who is three, and i would love to see her participate on her own terms. fancy a holiday for free? well, almost. we are looking at canny ways to travel on the cheap. i was earning very good money, putting frozen pies in a box. you can absolutely fund all this travel just by moving around and working. and the final curtain at broadway s longest running show. this is the first show i ever saw on broadway, and it s my broadway debut, so it s a beautiful, beautiful full circle moment for me. drums sitting halfway between the scottish mainland and norway, the shetland islands have a unique combination of cultures, and today, the sleepy town of lerwick is facing an invasion from a long dormant foe the vikings. cheering so this is up helly aa. it is one of a number of viking festivals that take place in shetland every
a clean air zone. and one of the most hyped bouts in the history of boxing tommy fury wins his grudge match by a split decision. at least 59 migrants have drowned after their boat broke up in rough seas and sank off the southern coast of italy, including a number of children. the boat was said to be overloaded with close to 150 people. it s thought the vessel left izmir, in eastern turkey, three days ago. those who survived came ashore near the town of crotone, on the calabrian coast, and are being helped by the red cross. jon donnison has the latest. overnight, another tragedy in the mediterranean. by daylight, this was all that was left of the migrant boat that broke up in rough seas just off the calabrian coast. rescue workers struggled in the conditions to recover bodies from the water. it s thought around 150 people were onboard. dozens, including a baby, are known to have drowned. the regional governor visited the scene. translation: calabria is - a region that welcom
were shot dead in their car. and one of the most hyped bouts in the history of boxing tommy fury wins his bout against jake paul. by bya by a split decision. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. welcome to the programme. the european commission president, ursula von der leyen, is to meet the british prime minister later today, with expectations rising that they ll finalise a new post brexit trading deal for northern ireland. if agreement is reached, rishi sunak will make a statement to the uk parliament. our political editor chris mason has more. here stands the ultimate prize in all of these negotiations. this is stormont, in belfast, the home of the northern ireland assembly. getting it and an executive here up and running again would be quite a moment. doing a deal with brussels does not guarantee that, but there are other potential prizes, improving internal uk trade and resetting relations with the european union. if we can get it over the line, we re o