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It's 527 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

And Fergal is back with us. Hi Fergal.

Hiya. Hello Fergal. Hi there.

And I know you're going to talk to us about a family of refugees being reunited in a moment,

which is so moving. You've written a piece for the BBC News website.

But first I just want to go back a little bit.

You were with us on Ukrainecast right at the start of the full-scale invasion last February.

And obviously you've been covering the conflict since 2014.

We last spoke in July last year.

What is your assessment of the situation in Ukraine now? Would you say, Fergal?

I think it's really interesting because it's one of these periods that a lot of people who are not

necessarily following the events that closely might look at it and think it's just dragging on.

It's almost like a stalemate situation.

I don't believe that that's the case.

I think we're in a really critical phase of the conflict.

The reports that we're getting certainly from the South.

But also from Eastern areas around back most of that is of gradual.

Now let's be very clear about it.

Gradual progress on the part of Ukrainian's grinding forwards

through these Russian defensive lines.

But in one case in the South, being about one and a half miles now

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