内容摘要：NCA Senior Investigating Officer Stuart Cobb said: "The evidence we heard from these victims was some of the most harrowing we have come across, and the offences involved some of the most serious yet investigated by officers working on Operation Stovewood.

NCA Senior Investigating Officer Stuart Cobb said: "The evidence we heard from these victims was some of the most harrowing we have come across, and the offences involved some of the most serious yet investigated by officers working on Operation Stovewood.

But Kofman is sceptical. "Security guarantees that don't have the United States involved in them as one of the guarantors is like a donut with a giant missing middle in it."It's a view echoed in Kyiv.

"What alternative could there be? There are no alternatives today," says Mr Podolyak.Pieces of paper, like the 1994 Budapest Memorandum (about Ukraine's post-Soviet borders) or 2014-15 Minsk agreements (which sought to end the Donbas War) are worthless, he argues, without the added threat of military deterrence."Russia must understand that as soon as they start aggression, they will receive a significant number of strikes in response," he says.

In the absence of agreement on Ukraine's long term future, its allies are doing what they can to bolster its defences.In December, Nato's secretary general, Mark Rutte, said "everything" was being looked at, including the supply of additional air defence systems, in part to protect the country's battered energy infrastructure from a renewed wave of coordinated Russian missile and drone attacks.

With Ukraine continuing to experience severe shortages of manpower, the UK Defence Secretary John Healey said the government might be willing to send British troops to Ukraine to help with training.

For its part, the departing Biden administration seems determined to deliver as much congressionally approved military assistance as it can to Ukraine before leaving office, although reports suggest it may run out of time to send everything.Saoirse Read, learning disability and autism consultant, said there were plans to roll out the app - which has almost 700 users - to other hospitals in south-west England, and there was interest from NHS England.

Hospital bosses said the hospital passport had traditionally been a paper document that patients carried around, but the trust developed the app with users to replace it as a "more practical and efficient" way to keep their information safe.Jessica said: "It saves me carrying the booklet and I can just hand my phone over to the nurse and consultants.

"We've made it easy and accessible for people who cannot understand technology."App user Luke said it had helped with hospital visits and it told staff what "your dislikes are... if you're allergic to anything, any medications, things like that".