mr. herbst: thank you. hannah, i would appreciate also your take as to whether zelenskyy could accept a settlement with russia having control over parts of ukrainian territory. ms. shelest: definitely not, or he would not accept the new acquisitions that the russian forces went after in february. ukraine was ready to discuss crimea and donbass at separate negotiations. we are ready to return back to those negotiations we have. it has been interesting to hear that the estimable negotiations confirmed negotiations about the status of crimea. probably jumping from the amount, but that demonstrates a general position. new acquisitions, ukraine would not go for this, but those that have not been under ukrainian control for the last eight years, it is not that we are rejecting them. ukraine would like return to total control, but at the same time we are ready to conduct them separately. mr. herbst: thank you. phil, another great ukrainian victory recently was sinking of the flagship of the russian black sea fleet

john herbst, former us ambassador to ukraine. the prime minister of australia, scott morrison has called a general election for next month. speaking in canberra after asking the governor general to formally dissolve parliament, mr morrison emphasised his economic track record saying his government had cut taxes and laid a strong foundation for australia to prosper. polls suggest that mr morrison will be defeated by his labor party rival. the first all—private mission to the international space station has docked. the crew — consisting of a pilot and three passengers — have been welcomed inside the international space station. they are due to spend eight days orbiting the earth. the flight is being hailed as a milestone in the commercialisation of space flight. well earlier i spoke to kathy leuders who leads nasa's human space flight programme. i asked her what these particular astronauts will be doing in the international space station. they have a tonne of experiments and different research and outreach that they have line

john herbst, former us ambassador to ukraine. you are watching bbc news. the headlines... imran khan has been removed as prime minister of pakistan after losing a vote of confidence in parliament. borisjohnson has pledged more british support for ukraine after meeting president zelensky in kyiv. thousands of people have gathered in the sri lankan capital, colombo, to protest against the country's deepening economic crisis. the demonstrators are calling for the president, gotabaya rajapaksa, to step down. 0ur correspondent, rajini vaidyanathan was among the protesters. thousands have gathered here in the sri lankan capital colombo for a day of mass protest. there is a real strength of feeling here, lots of anger, almost all of it directed at sri lanka's government, in particular the country's president gotabaya rajapaksa. throughout the afternoon, protesters have been shouting, chanting, calling for him to step down. so far, the president and his brother, the prime minister, mahinda rajapaksa, are refusing to resign. they say that they will continue in government and get sr

. >>> john herbst and andrea kendall taylor join me. so mr. ambassador, let me start with you. what do you make with this ambiguity from ukrainian officials, refusing to say whether or not ukraine was behind this air strike on the russian fuel depot? >> well, this represents their proper recognition that if they were to acknowledge it, then putin would use that to say to the russian people, see, they're attacking us. on the other hand, if they were to deny it, they would remove the possibility that they had actually had a major tactical success. so i think it's the right play for them. >> and andrea, russia blames ukraine. frankly, the correct me has told so many lies just about this war, starting with that they weren't going to invade. what do you think the chances are that russia might have been behind the strike as a false flag and an attempt to further justify its aggressiveness, its bloody attacks on ukraine? >> i think as you laid out in your report, it's really difficult to know. we really are in this fog of war where it's difficult to discern what's going on on a day-to

thank you for talking to us, john herbst, former us ambassador to ukraine. you are watching bbc news, the headlines: imran khan is removed as prime minister of pakistan — after losing a vote of confidence in parliament. orisjohnson pledges more british support for ukraine — after meeting president zelensky in kyiv. thousands of people have gathered in the sri lankan capital, colombo, to protest against the country's deepening economic crisis. the demonstrators are calling for the president, gotabaya rajapaksa, to step down. so far, the president and his brother, the prime minister, mahinda rajapaksa, have refused to resign. 0ur correspondent, rajini vaidyanathan, was among the protesters. thousands have gathered here in the sri lankan capital colombo for a day of mass protest. there is a real strength of feeling here, lots of anger, almost all of it directed at sri lanka's government, in particular the country's president gotabaya rajapaksa. throughout the afternoon, protesters have been shouting, chanting, calling for him to step down. so far, the presi