I'm David Knowles, and this is Ukraine, the latest.

Today we discuss Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's visit to war-torn backmoot.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.

And we speak about Ukraine's literary scene in wartime, with our guest, Badana Nevorak.

Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has destabilized energy markets the world over.

Nobody is going to break us. We're strong. We're Ukrainians.

Every week day afternoon, we sit down with leading journalists from Telegraphs London Newsroom,

and our teams reporting on the ground, to bring either latest news and analysis on the war in Ukraine.

It's Tuesday, 20 December, day 300.

Today, I'm joined by our assistant comment editor Francis Stanley, foreign correspondent James Kilner,

and our guest, Badana Nevorak, is a journalist, culture manager and podcast host, calling from Ukraine.

I started by asking Francis for the latest news from Ukraine.

Well, thanks David, good to be showing the airways with you again.

The big news today is that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has made an unannounced visit to battle-torn back moot this morning.

Obviously, the center of one of the most brutal fights in the war to date.

Mr. Zelensky met military officials and handed out awards to Ukrainian servicemen in the city,

located on the front line of the Netsk region.

Now, regular listeners, of course, will be familiar with the fact that Badmout has witness fighting reminiscent of the first war in recent weeks.

We've seen hundreds killed there and wounded each day in intense shelling and bloody frontal attacks.

Indeed, it's been nicknamed the back moot meat grinder for the losses that the Ukrainians are suffering,

but also the losses that the Russians have also suffered.

I mean, as I've underlined on the podcast before, there's a bit of a myth, I think, emerged in some western commentary

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