russians will have theirs. and there will be many such questions. look at the russian signals. why do you think they make sack signals -- why do you think they make such signals? you respect your land and your national flag, your people, your history, and we do, and the russians as well, but they also want to bring their history to us. to impose it on us and destroy us, which is why, in every war, there must be a first step, just as president trump stairs, to stop the killing. that is full and conditional -- unconditional ceasefire, and the leaders are not needed for it. there must be political will of the leader and this is possible to do.

and this is not the war that happened hundreds of years ago. there are media technologies, you cannot meet in person, not to complicate things and agree to cease fire. so that we don't go deep into details of all this infrastructure, over all the way that we left to the end of the world. we now start to argue about the details, here is a past, which is why everyone says, let us try the 30 day ceasefire. and when one side, and this is one side, now all the world united on a full and unconditional ceasefire, there is nobody else who says, let us speak on how to end the war. everybody agrees because this will stop the killing.

there will be violations but there will be no nest in this. there will be certain gun shots but the artillery will be silent. president zelensky, a fascinating half hour. taking questions. let me take you through the key lines. ukrainian delegation headed by ukraine's minister to istanbul. out of respect for president trump and the turkish prime minister trying to make the first steps towards the de-escalation, he said russia was not real at all about ceasefire. he said there is no need for him to go to istanbul because there is nothing for him to actually do. he is still ready, he said, for talks with vladimir putin. it was interesting that he said that the first step is an unconditional ceasefire. if that was agreed, even at a technical level, there is no

need to have a direct meeting with vladimir putin. if there was an indication that might happen, indirect talks, then he was ready to meet with president putin. ultimately, he said, if all of that fails, then the west should demonstrate their willingness for increasing the pressure on moscow, increasing the sanctions. those are the key lines so far. we continue to monitor that news conference but as we do, let's bring in our senior international correspondent who is in istanbul. and also our state department following marco rubio. thank you, both of you, for patiently waiting and listening to all of that. you wrote a really neat line on your websites peace where you summarised it, saying the man who started the war in ukraine will stay away from these talks trying to end it. where do you

think we currently are? i think that vladimir putin has manoeuvred very deftly to get himself out of a problem that he himself created. you remember last weekend, on saturday, the global attention was on the visit of european leaders to achieve, their solidarity they showed, their joint to demand they issued for a ceasefire, and unconditional ceasefire 30 days. or, they said, there would be a massive sanctions package imposed on russia. within hours we have vladimir putin, if you like, stealing the impetus, coming forward with this plan for unconditional talks without any preconditions. he specified the date, the time and the place. he said, istanbul, may be 15. here we are, istanbul, maybe 15. he kept everyone guessing the last few days about whether he would turn up or not, until

really midnight last night. and then we discovered the delegation coming was not at a senior level. he has managed, i think, again to put something out there which was a distraction, he clearly did not intend to actually be at these talks. one very interesting thing today, matthew, in the last few hours that i took note of. president trump made a remark on his plane, he said nothing will happen until i meet vladimir putin. that is exactly what the russian leader wants. some kind of one-on-one meeting, if it is going to take place between president putin and president trump, that implies that president zelensky is going to be left very much on the sidelines. i am just looking at the scenario here. something else i was very struck by during the press conference was somebody said to president zelensky, when other talks going to take place? between the usher, ukraine and istanbul. he said, i don't

know. he said i'm sending some of my delegations, some are already there, they will be in istanbul tonight, tomorrow, in case meetings can take place. as of right now, there is no timetable from ukrainians, turks all the russians. so it is still possible these talks won't in fact take place. i think there will be a sense, certainly on ukraine's part, that vladimir putin has managed, once again, very deftly, without even being here, to troll the events that might control the events. bearing in mind, he would never have agreed to sit in a room with volodymyr zelensky, because he has tried to maintain that president zelensky is not a legitimate president. i think this has worked out, frankly, exactly the way that vladimir putin wanted it to be. there wasn't much chance of progress at the beginning, and he has managed to ensure there is much less chance of progress. fascinating analysis. thank you very much

for that. talking about moscow's view of zelensky. the foreign minister early in the day described him as a loser and a clown. let's go to tom bateman as promised. tom, you are there with marco rubio's team. give me a sense of the mood among american officials. well, i think it is pretty dead plated. i think they were basically under instruction from president trump to either goad or entice vladimir putin himself to turkey. clearly they have failed to do that. at least as far as we know that far. i think, matthew, what today has also shown is the gap that continues between the americans and the europeans. a transatlantic divide over vladimir putin. what we saw at the beginning of this week was the europeans laid down an ultimatum to putin to say a 30 day unconditional ceasefire or

you get this huge package of sanctions slapped on you, extra sanctions by us europeans. president trump almost immediately managed to spike that by giving a platform to the demand instead from mr putin, to hold those talks today in istanbul. obviously, that hasn't happened at any sort of significant level. we still don't know if it will happen or not. if it does, it looks like if a junior level. the europeans here at nato have been trying to, one foreign minister after another, showing up here saying, volodymyr zelensky as a peacemaker. he has come here, prepared to make peace, to do everything president trump asks. they are trying to pile the pressure on putin to say that because he hasn't come, he is not interested in peace. trying to get that message across to the americans. my senses the americans aren't really listening. i think that comes back to fundamental here, that, in the end, when there has been a moment the donald trump on

marco rubio to say, ok, your time is up to the kremlin. that hasn't really happened. they have kept the door open, kept giving him more options. as you heard, he has played that. i think very much he has been calling the shots around these particular talks. marco rubio was with the secretary general of nato earlier giving some brief remarks. i asked him a question, i said to mr rubio, what is the deadline on putin's acting. he didn't answer that question. again, really interesting. tom bateman, thank you very much for your analysis. let's bring in, live on the programme, the head of the global justice campaign. exposing human rights abuses. welcome to the programme and thank you for your patient sitting there waiting as we listen to president zelensky. is there any surprise where you

set that it was a no-show from vladimir putin? no surprise at all. but a mere putin has no intention of ending this war. let's be clear, he was the one who invaded ukraine, at any point he could stop invading to stop it doesn't actually require ukraine to do anything. it doesn't require ukraine to have any peace talks. it is in his power to invade or withdraw. so all this dancing around, who is going to show up, who is not going to show up? it is all theatrics. it is all putin playing the rest of the world, and it is clear from where i sit, and for a very long time, that he has no intention of stopping this war. it was so interesting listening to the analysis where the point was made that vladimir putin constantly muddies the water, and it was outlined how he has done it since i gathering in kyiv on sunday. there is still

no sign, though, of donald trump during any line in the sand, is there? none whatsoever. donald trump has, again, we should state the obvious, effectively being on putin's side in this whole conflict. donald trump was the one who humiliated volodymyr zelensky in the oval office. he was the one who withdrew military aid for some brief period of time along with intelligence. he voted with russia at the united nations. every time that putin has done one of these tricks, he apologises for it and he said, of course, i understand putin's is not going to do anything until i am there. and there was another one of these air plane, off the cuff comments, where he said, i would probably do the same thing if i was him. donald trump will occasionally say something that looks like he has been tough on putin, but when it comes to actually being

tough on putin, he hasn't done any sanctions, increased any military weapon supplies to ukraine. until he does, both of those things, putin's is not going to come to the table. i will come to sanctions in a moment or two from the american's perspective. is this the moment for europe, the coalition of their willing, who gathered over the weekend there in ukraine, to do the things outlined on sunday? it is absolutely the time that the europeans to step up and do what they outlined on sunday. the problem i foresee is that there is a split decision to stop on the one hand the americans who want to do nothing, and then you have the europeans who want to do something. the europeans, that includes the uk as well, don't want to alienate donald trump, for reasons to do with this war and a lot of other things like tariffs, negotiations and so on. everybody is stuck in this

paralysis because on one hand, of course, it is obvious you needs more weapons, more funding, i think europe and the uk is willing to give those weapons. at the same time, everyone is afraid of donald trump. a couple of days ago the eu announced they were going to use 1 billion euros from frozen assets to help with ukraine and the arms supplies. are you puzzled at all why that particular lever, frozen assets, hasn't been polled to the extent it could be? de frozen assets, of which consists of 300 billion, could effectively change the nation nature of this war and negotiation. donald trump is like may levitt, the reason why everybody is kowtowing term, is that the united states provides 40% of the military aid to ukraine. and the united states, donald trump, is threatening to withdraw that. and he probably

well. so everybody sang, please, please, don't withdraw the military aid to ukraine. if we decide to confiscate that $300 billion, and most of it is held in europe and the uk, it doesn't matter whether the us continues to provide military aid because that is russian money that could be confiscated. and then it could be used to filling the gap. all of a sudden, donald trump doesn't have this leveraged and everybody doesn't have to kowtow to him any more. a final thought, you talked about how donald trump has at every stage looks to explain a way the actions of vladimir putin. so often he has asked questions about how moscow hasn't moved and he ends up talking about both sides, some sort of equivalence in the two. do you actually understand why he has adopted the position he has, donald trump, with regards to

that? well, i guess that is the trillion dollar question. nobody really does understand it. there are many theories out there, we probably don't have enough time to go through the series in this programme. whatever the reason is, he has taken this position, which is a position that is adverse to the american public interest, american people don't think vladimir putin is a good guy, they think he is a villain. republicans don't think he is a good guy. he is on his own trying to bring the rest of the world with him in an untenable situation of supporting vladimir putin which doesn't make any sense. do you expect the stance we have seen for months now to simply continue in one form or another with moscow showing no sign of doing anything differently? donald trump show no sign of doing anything differently? i know for sure that moscow is not going to do anything differently. it is going to continue to execute this war until it is put into a position where they are forced not to. the question is what donald

trump does and it is very difficult to make any predictions on his behaviour. grey tabby on the programme. thank you so much for joining us. that might great to have you on the programme. donald trump said his priority was to end complex, not to actually sort them. our north american editor was travelling with the present. "peace through strength", it says behind the stage. and that's been donald trump's mantra for months. but on this trip, he's been talking more about peace through business. he doesn't believe that the us should use its military to intervene in the middle east. so instead, he's been talking about encouraging business and thinking that will foster peaceful relations. describing to the troops here the enormous arms deals that he has signed this week, where gulf nations will spend billions buying war fighting equipment from the united states.

he also described this huge military parade he's going to hold in washington next month to commemorate the end of world war two, a war donald trump said here was won by the united states. other countries helped a bit, he said, but hitler would not have been defeated without america. he took some of the credit for helping to deescalate the conflict between india and pakistan recently, saying he told them, do trade, not war. and when it comes to those talks between russia and ukraine in turkey, well, earlier today he said he could go to istanbul if it was appropriate, if he thought it would help, he could turn up there on friday. sarah smith.

health officials in gaza say more than 100 people have been killed in israeli air strikes across the territory. that comes from the hamas-run civil defence organisation. eyewitnesses say there have been air strikes, and shelling from artillery and tanks. some of the heaviest bombardment is reported to be around the jabalia refugee camp in the north of gaza. israel says its targeting what it calls hamas terrorists and says it did issue evacuation orders to civilians ahead of the attacks. the israeli blockade of aid supplies from gaza has come under fierce international criticism. bbc verify has been examining new satellite imagery and what it tells us about israel's controversial aid plan - that's been rejected by the un. merlyn thomas has more. the israeli government suspended aid to gaza for months. blocking food from entering. this has come under fierce criticism from the international community. aid had been distributed by organisations in gaza. israel said the aid has been diverted to fighters by hamas. this new plan would see it run by security companies within gaza.

this has been rejected by humanitarian organisation. we even analyse satellite imagery, showing that israel has been preparing... let's take a closer look. israel hasn't publicly said where the hubs would be. using this imagery, we have identified four potential sites. three in the south of gaza, one further north. that we in the south, the satellite images show that they have all seen construction activity recently. they are similar in size, shape and design to existing open air supply sites inside gaza. let's look at their site in particular. it is placed or destroyed... in south-west gaza. now used as a israeli forces base. a satellite image from the 3rd of may, we can see construction imagery of that same large staging area. up here about 650 metres from the border with egypt. a significant idf presence nearby, you can see that. aid

agencies have warned it could lead to more civilian deaths. the un aid coordination office told us that channelling all aid through a hand full of militarised hubs, which cut off areas in gaza, particularly the most vulnerable. the lack of hubs in the north will forcibly displaced people. it is asking israel to allow a network across the whole of gaza and to let aidan through normal rates until it is up and running. for the moment, their situation is start, with the un warning of famine. nallen thomas, from bbc verify. latest figures show the uk economy grew more than expected in the first three months of the year. in the period between january and march, output rose by 0.7%. this morning, the chancellor told the bbc that the economy is beginning to turn a corner. but the figures cover a period before president trump's

tariffs and the rise in employers' national insurance payments. we will bring you more from that in our next hour. one more story to squeeze in. it's the second semifinal of the eurovision song contest in switzerland, with 16 countries trying to make it to this weekend's grand final. ten acts from this evening's performance will be joining those who qualified on tuesday. here's charlotte gallagher. charlotte, over to you. i am on the fan zone, matthew. you can see lots of people milling around, if you act on stage already. iceland have been performing, a bit reminiscent of the twins jedward. i am joined by a eurovision fan, you

have been to many contacts. how are you enjoying this competition so far? basel are bidding on a great show. it is great to be here. switzerland is beautiful, my first time here. you can tell it is a city that really wanted to host it. liverpool bids really hard to get it, beat glasgow today. basel beat geneva and have shown why they really wanted it ever stop this eurovision is amazing, the whole city has eurovision parties. i saying in a neighbouring town and they have a eurovision festival on at the same time. the atmosphere is really lovely. you are right, the atmosphere is really good when you walk around. you cannot help but smile. people are dressed up in costumes that people remember from eurovision way back. we have got the second semifinal tonight. what are your

predictions? is a really tough one to call. this whole eurovision is really tough to call. i think there are six that have to go out tonight, i think some might struggle. i think ireland might have another difficult year after last year's apposite success. i think lithuania and montenegro might also struggle. then there are a few questions. i really love the danish, actually. me too. i hope it connects. we saw that denmark is doing a similar rave, will it connect with the arena? will it work on camera? that is what we are going to find out tonight. belgium were doing really well and then they did make it three. absolutely. they were top 20 when the whole thing at one point. and they had a great show on stage. it looked really impressive. but it didn't connect with a view

is is only viewers at home that in the semifinals. that means that the betting odds might not always be telling us what we need to know. we could have some surprises tonight. some people might see slovenia going home tonight, that beautiful ballad about his wife and her struggles with cancer. that and make it three. who knows what they find voters across europe will be looking for tonight. they don't have to qualify, part at the big five. what you think the chances are? i think they are going to... their wonderful, the band are really lovely. great fun, singing all over the place. beautiful harmonies, beautiful voices. they come straight after a black and white song tonight, they are going to give you a real burst of colour. they're having so much fun on stage and i think that will be infectious. tonight is a chance for them to show what they can do before saturday night. when

people get to vote on them. so i really hope they enjoy it and show how good sing and perform as they are. where are we going to be next year? who is going to win this? i think it is very hard to not see sweden winning at, again. not a swedish song, naughty, in swedish, and all about being in the sauna. that it's slick, funny, great production. and it seems to have momentum. either austria or the netherlands, maybe even france, who have wanted to win it for a long time. if there's sweden can do well, it is writing a banger. thank you very much for that matter, just a few hours to go now until the second semifinal. nearly time to get out there sequence. thank you very much. we will have the very latest from turkey. we have been listening to president zelensky for most of this hour. we will talk to our correspondent who has live

there in istanbul. the bbc with the latest lines

live from london. this is bbc news. ukrainian president zelensky says russia isn't serious about peace talks, after president putin refused to attend face-to-face negotiations in turkey. president trump - currently in the middle east - says that no further developments will take place until he meets with putin. nothing is going to happen until putin and i get together, ok? hamas officials in the gaza strip say israeli air strikes have killed a hundred people since midnight - many of them in tents. israel says it is targeting militants after warning civilians. and the security brief's mikey kay provides analysis after russian jets breached nato airspace in estonia over the baltic sea.