I'm Frances Dernley and this is a special episode of Ukraine the latest.

Bravery takes you through the most unimaginable hardships to finally reward you with victory.

If we give President Zelensky the tools, the Ukrainians will finish the job.

Slava Ukrainian.

Nobody is one of the break us.

We're strong.

We're Ukrainians.

Today is a bank holiday in the United Kingdom.

So we've pre-recorded an interview with one of our most requested guests,

Professor Sir Lawrence Friedman of the Department of War Studies at King's College London.

A world-renowned expert on

international history and strategic theory. He is well known as a commentator on all

manner of security issues and the author of many books, including most recently,

command the politics of military operations from Korea to Ukraine.

David sat down with him to discuss which country has the strategic initiative in this war.

The Ways, the Battlefront, is likely to evolve over the coming months.

And what experts have got right and wrong about the way the war has progressed.

This is their conversation.

Well thank you so much for your time. Let's start with quite a broad question then.

What's your view on the state of the front lines, the state of the war in May 2024?

I don't think the war's quite at a turning point. The Russians have had the initiative for about six months now.

They've done a certain amount with this initiative. They've made progress in the Dbar more than the Ukrainians would have liked,

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