First of all, let's turn to Ukraine, where President Zelenskyy has once again been asking the outside world to come together to face Russia, saying that his war aim is to kick Russia out of Ukraine, including Crimea. Well, he's recently had words of support from Spain, where he received a pledge of military aid. But what is happening in Ukraine itself? Well, Russian forces have made some progress, and we know that they've been making advances towards the Eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv in recent weeks. In the early hours of just this morning, a series of explosions hit the Russian-held Ukrainian city of Luhansk, reportedly targeting a military aviation school and also a repair plant. Well, let's cross over to our international editor, Jeremy Bowen, who joins us live from Kharkiv. Jeremy, you were at the DIY center in Kharkiv that was targeted over the weekend. Seemingly, Ukraine's second city is defenseless against Russian air attacks.

That's certainly how it feels here, yeah. That particular shopping complex, I think the death toll is now up to 18. They're still looking for missing people. It's a strange atmosphere here in Kharkiv because behind me, there's a busy road. People are going to work, but only about 30 kilometers from here, there's quite a major battle going on between Ukrainian and Russian forces in in a border town called Vovchansk, where I was in the area just a few days ago. I didn't go into the city. It's way too lethal for that to be there. But I could see massive plumes of smoke coming from big fires. Clearly, it's an inferno. And as well as that, here in the city, this is the second biggest city in Ukraine. It does feel pretty defenseless when it comes to various kinds of Russian missile attacks because they're so short of missile defenses. What they have to do is make some difficult choices about what it is they protect.

Remember me, we've been seeing President Zelensky, he was in Madrid over the weekend. Just talk us through what he wants, because I know, of course, he's always calling for more arms, but he also wants to target locations within Russia. What's the reality of the international community even agreeing to that?

Well, the thing is, it's the Americans, basically. It's Joe Biden, President Joe Biden in the White House, who is very reluctant for the Ukrainians to use some of the sophisticated weapons that the Americans have supplied to hit targets inside Russia. That is because of the fear that he has that goes way back to the start of the full scale invasion more than two years ago in February 2022, when essentially Actually, as Biden said at the time, we do not want to get too engaged in this directly because that would be World War III. So he is worried about escalation. He's worried about the fact that President Putin does from time at the time, rattle the nuclear saber. And while a lot of analysts say, Look, that's just bluff, I think President Biden is cautious, and he says, Well, let's not take that risk. But especially with the pressure now in this border fight that's going on, the Ukrainians are saying, Why can't we hit, say, concentrations of Russian troops on the other side of the border? Even the head of NATO, Jens Staltenberg, has come out and said that that should be allowed. It's pretty unusual for the head of NATO to be directly pressing the most important and powerful member of NATO, the United States, the leader of NATO, to change his policies.

But that's what he's doing.

Yes, fascinating. Really interesting turn there from Jens Staltenberg. Jeremy, as always, to you and the team, stay safe. Thank you so much. Jeremy Bowen, our international editor in Kharkiv, where Russia is stepping up those attacks on that part of Eastern Ukraine, Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city. Lots more on our website as well.