welcome to bbc news. i'm james reynolds. our top stories. as more people flee the bombings and missile strikes a former ukrainian president tells the bbc his country is desperate. you see all these people are suffering from that and this is completely unacceptable and when we are asking the no—fly zone, this is exactly for these people. nato rules out a no—fly zone but poland looks at a plan that could see ukraine given old fighterjets. the economic fighter jets. the economic fallout fighterjets. the economic fallout from the war continues. these and mastercard announced they are each disconnecting their services in russia. solidarity in the streets — and in the football stands — thousands continue to show support for the people of ukraine.

welcome to bbc news. across ukraine, the russian military is keeping up its intense bombardments of towns it's trying to capture. there have been heavy strikes against irpin, northwest of kyiv where the russians are trying to break through. a stream of people are fleeing on foot, taking a minimum of belongings. our correspondent orla guerin is in the town — just 25 kilometres outside the capital — and sent this report. this is the reality of russia's invasion. yevgen is watching his family home ablaze. his children had leftjust ten minutes earlier.

no military targets here. just his beloved german shepherd. all this is happening 16 miles from kyiv in the town of irpin. it is home to about 60,000 people. today, many were desperate to get out. they crossed the river on foot. ukraine blew up the bridge in self—defence to prevent a russian advance. a hurried rescue mission in an escalating war. we witnessed the exodus of frightened civilians converging on buses bound for the railway station in the capital and the next train out. among them, this mother with babe in arms. trying to comfort her daughter.

leading the evacuation, the former ukrainian president petro poroshenko, marshalling the crowds. he's pleading with nato to reconsider and impose a no—fly zone, for the sake of all those subjected to danger and indignity at the hands of vladimir putin. the russian is completely bombing, with air bombs, with missiles, the civilian people, and you see all these people are suffering from that. and this is completely unacceptable. and when we are asking the no—fly zone, this is exactly for these people. and with this situation, we need to protect them. katya tells us, "yesterday they shelled day and night, hitting the hospital, the university and the tax office." "they are shelling every day," she says. well, in the distance here,

you can see the smoke is still rising. you get a sense of what people are fleeing from. there is a steady stream of people coming here now, they're carrying their bags, their suitcases, some of them have their pets. they're taking just what they can carry, and they're rushing for the buses to try and get out of here and get to safety. do you feel let down by nato? i am not sure. i think, look, we count on them, we still think that the chance is not missing yet _ jets roar. 0verhead, the russian threat. so far nato is not taking the chance or the risk of closing the skies. ukraine claims to have shot down a russian helicopter north of the capital. this video seems

to confirm that. president putin's invasion is not going to plan but he still has plenty of firepower. 0rla guerin, bbc news, irpin. president putin says any attempt to impose a no—fly zone in ukrainian skies would lead to what he called catastrophic consequences for the world. he said a no—fly zone could only be imposed with help from outside ukraine and that russia would consider any country that did so to have joined the conflict. translation: it is possible to do only from the neighbouring | states, but any movement in this direction will be considered participation in an armed conflict on the part of the country from which territorial threats to our military personnel are being made. at that exact moment we will consider them as parties in military conflict. nato has ruled out a no—fly zone over ukraine, fearing it

would put it into direct contact with russia's military and see more countries brought into the war. but the white house says the us is working with poland as it considers providing fighterjets. the united states could replenish poland's supply, here's duncan kennedy. we know that the polish air force has some older russian—made jets, mig—29s and one or two others, and president zelensky was hinting if he could get hold of those because some ukrainian pilots had trained on those former soviet russian jets. how they would get across the border, they couldn't be flown, it wasn't made clear, but that is one suggestion now being entertained, if you like, by the us congress and maybe be looked at by the pentagon, as well. we know already, from pentagon sources, that the ukrainians have about 100 or so combat jets, and we are told the majority of those are still

intact, but president zelensky thinks he needs some sort of extra help to maintain air superiority or to fend off russia trying to get hold of air superiority, and this old—jet policy is just one thing he's looking at, and is hoping people like the americans, who have the most resources, most of the money when it comes to this, might find a way of making it actually happen on the ground. ukraine's president said he spoke to spacex ceo elon musk and announced the country will receive more of its starlink satellite internet terminals. their conversation comes after musk announced last week said spacex's starlink satellite internet service had been activated in the country.

starlink provides high—speed internet from space with satellites flying in low earth orbit. elon musk warned it could be targeted. the payments giants mastercard and visa have announced that they are suspending their operations in russia. mastercard said it will no longer support cards issued by russian banks and those issued outside the country will not work in russia. visa says it will cease all transactions in russia in the coming days. anything that crosses the border, they have cut you off. it is a combined attempt to isolate the country. the main bank there, to make it more confusing, has said the

complete opposite and told locals not to worry, your banks will accept these cards, you will accept these cards, you will be able to use them at cashpoints, still able to buy milk and bread. it makes it a bit confusing. we haven't been told that by visa or mastercard yet. the reasons we have been told by the manager of the reason is that the company has felt compelled to act following russia's invasion of ukraine and the unacceptable events that we as a company have witnessed. mastercard has also issued a statement describing the events as shocking and devastating. they go on to say we don't take this decision lightly. mastercard has operated in russia for more than 25 years. they have nearly 200 colleagues based there who make up that company so it is critical to stakeholders there. the ukrainian government had previously called on financial companies, lots of them pulling

out due to these sanctions, paypal being one, earlier announcing it is suspending services there. the israeli prime minister, naftali bennett, has held three hours of talks with vladimir putin at the kremlin. mr bennett is the first western leader to meet the russian president since the invasion began. details of what was discussed have not been disclosed. here's the bbc�*s tom bateman injerusalem. israeli officials say these talks went on for three hours in the kremlin between mr bennett and vladimir putin. i think the fact that the israeli prime ministerflew to moscow in the midst of russia's increasing diplomatic isolation gives you a sense ofjust how extraordinary these particular talks are. they have not come completely out of the blue. we have known for some days now that there have been at least two phone calls between the israeli prime minister and the russian president and also at the same time, mr bennett has been talking to president zelensky of ukraine. the israeli leader believes he can try to position

himself as a mediator between the two countries. he believes israel is uniquely placed to have dialogue with both moscow in the form of mr putin and with mr zelensky. and the reason for that is that israel has significant relations with both countries. long historical, cultural ties with ukraine, and significant relations in russia because of russia's position controlling the skies and its presence on the ground in syria, where israel carries out repeated air strikes against iranian interests. they have had to develop a pretty delicate but quite deep relationship with russians because of that. now, what happens next? well, mr bennett's officials said he had a phone call with president zelensky after the meeting with mr putin. the israelis say that the talks with the kremlin happened in coordination with key

western partners, and they say that in their words, with "the blessing of the white house", so it gives you some indication as to the seriousness, how the israelis are taking this as they think they can position themselves as mediators, and just how extraordinary these talks are, given russia's growing diplomatic isolation, but the question that emerges, even if you have a mediator, what substance is there to be mediated over? plans for humanitarian corridors — to allow civilians to leave mariupol in the south of ukraine — have failed to come off. 200,000 people are desperate to escape the city to safety. 0ur eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford has been to the town of zaporizhzhia — whose nuclear power plant was targeted by russian troops earlier this week — and which is ready to receive evacuees. zaporizhzhia was ready for crowds of people today, bus—loads of families,

fleeing the fighting further south. this is the nearest safe city, just outside the conflict zone. wladyslaw remembers trips to the state circus as a schoolchild. he never imagined turning the ring into this, a refuge, in a war. but the thousands he was expecting to help didn't show up. there was no ceasefire, the safe corridor to allow people to reach here was never set up. translation: we were waiting for them but i hear _ the russians didn't keep to the agreement so no—one dared risk it and the corridor slammed shut. but we still hope they can agree something and we are ready to take people in. for ten days, the port city of mariupol has been under bombardment, besieged and battered by russian troops.

volnovakha has also been targeted relentlessly. the plan was to stop all this and let civilians take buses to safety. but hours into an agreed ceasefire, the mayor of mariupol published this... a warning to residents that russian forces were firing along their escape route. "don't panic," he told them, "but it's not safe now." this woman did make it out today, from another danger spot. she was given clothes for her daughter at the circus cloakroom. she'd had to leave everything at home to run from the fighting. it was all so unexpected, she says, and so stressful. all of these donations, the clothes, the bedding and food, it was all gathered here in the space ofjust a couple of hours today, when people of this town were told families were going to be fleeing here from the fighting further south, and they haven't arrived yet, but this does show very clearly how communities and how this country, in fact,

is uniting, in the face of this enormous threat. all this beetroot soup won't get eaten today but there will be more supplies, more help, as soon as it is needed. edward wanted me to know that everything would be ok and he insisted russian troops wouldn't dare enter this city. then he crumpled... and the people all this is meant for had to spend yet another night in danger. sarah rainsford, bbc news, zaporizhzhia. dr donald jensen is director of russia and europe at the us institute of peace. in the 1990s he was a diplomat at the us embassy in moscow. iasked him how he assessed the state of the conflict 11 days in. well, the state of the conflict is, i think, about to to broaden, to become more fierce, to become more violent.

the russians, having been frankly shocked at the amount of ukrainian resistance, have steadily shifted their tactics this week — going from a so—called russian version of blitzkrieg, which was stopped, to grinding powerful old—style soviet tactics. that includes a lot of artillery and that includes, unfortunately, bombing cities and civilians. i think that's what we're going to face in the next couple of days. looking back in history, russia had a long war in afghanistan in the 1980s. i wonder if there are any similarities at all with its war in ukraine. oh, there are many. ukraine's goal is not to to defeat militarily the russian forces. ukraine's goal is not to lose. there's already, as we've seen, a lot of domestic opposition inside russia to what's going on — significantly in the putin elite. there are also misgivings, opposition — quiet though it might be —

to what's going on, but it's nowhere near to stop putin yet. and that's one of the reasons why i think the diplomatic front, at the moment at least, is largely a reserve, largely symbolic, and if it gets any traction at all, it'll have to be after more developments in the fighting. how real is the danger of direct conflict between the united states and russia? it's very, very dangerous and very, very — not close, but it's significant. you may have seen today in washington the debate on a no—fly zone. this has gone from calls for nato or the us to have superiority in the skies to a more limited understanding of it, which would protect the so—called humanitarian corridors to let the civilians — in their thousands, as we know — to escape cities like mariupol, which have been under severe fighting all this week. do you see any chance of any successful mediation, any potential back channels to allow a de—escalation?

well, there are always back channels and, as you may have also noticed, there's even now a backchannel for us and russian military, as they say — an ugly word — deconfliction to make sure there are no accidents. but i think we've got to see events evolve on the battlefield one way or the other before they turn back to meaningful negotiations. however, just the fact that their meeting is useful, just the fact that their meeting is an opportunity when both sides agree that there needs to be an off ramp. but for now, i think it's going to be largely more symbolic and a possibility rather than show any progress at the table. looking back in the world since 1945 — in europe since 1945 — how dangerous a moment is this in historical terms for europe? this is certainly the most dangerous — much more than the balkan war 20 years ago. we're talking about russia — a nuclear—armed superpower — essentially trying to redraw the security architecture in europe, which europe has

profited by since 1945. they want to upset that, and that's why this even has the threat of going further, threatening poland or the baltic states. and that's really why the us and the west has reacted so firmly now. they need to stop this and they need to stop it here, and they need to stop it now. the united nations estimates that around one and a half million people will have fled ukraine by the end of this weekend. thousands of refugees have made their way to poland, romania, hungary and moldova. and at least 90,000 have crossed the border into slovakia. lukas 0ndercanin is a journalist for the slovakian daily newspaper and has been to the slovakia ukraine border. there are thousands of people waiting in line and many of them are staying for at least a couple of days in slovakia and some of them are heading to the

west, to other countries. is west, to other countries. is slovakia prepared to take in all those refugees, does it have infrastructure?- all those refugees, does it have infrastructure? they are - re ared have infrastructure? they are prepared to _ have infrastructure? they are prepared to accept _ have infrastructure? they are prepared to accept people - prepared to accept people temporarily or even for a longer time, so there are shelters in place, there are many volunteers who are able to take families who want to have a rest on the way to the west or to stay here. there is a huge network of volunteers on the border on the site, people providing food on the site. so now it is very well—prepared. described food, suggesting there was a welcome for these refugees come is that right? yes, when you compare with other refugee crisis we had a couple of years ago, it is very different and most of the people are welcoming. there is infrastructure, ukrainians have three trains in slovakia, there is free public transport in bratislava in the capital, and

info points on main train station where ukrainians can ask where to go so many people and volunteers are ready to help people. and volunteers are ready to help peeple-_ and volunteers are ready to help people. more generally, how are people _ help people. more generally, how are people in _ help people. more generally, how are people in slovakia i how are people in slovakia dealing with the fact that russia has invaded slovakia's neighbour?— neighbour? well, there is of course some _ neighbour? well, there is of course some kind _ neighbour? well, there is of course some kind of... - neighbour? well, there is of course some kind of... i- course some kind of... i wouldn't say panic but people are aware it is very close to the border. especially when vladimir putin threatened to use maybe nuclear weapons. there was a panic in pharmacies and people went to buy iodine pills just and people went to buy iodine pillsjust in case. and people went to buy iodine pills just in case. the politicians are trying to calm the situation down and we are a member of nato so there is a big guarantee of safety for slovakia, at least from what the president and prime minister i say. people are not panicking. ministerl say. people are not

panicking-— ministerl say. people are not anickin. , panicking. lukas 0ndercanin in bratislava- _ tens of thousands of people have been demonstrating across european cities in support of ukraine, demanding an end to russia's invasion, as well as using high—profile sports matches to get their point across — as stephanie prentice reports. with flags in the stands and applause on the pitch, the world's most popular football league, the english premier league, using saturday's matches to show support for ukraine in full view of the watching world. mixed messages in the chelsea stands with booing as some fans cheered for owner roman abramovich, an alleged close contact of vladimir putin, something their manager stood against. we need ourfans to commit to this minute of applause, we do it for ukraine and there is no second opinion about the situation there, and they have our thoughts and our support, and we should

stand together as a club. it is not the moment for other messages. off the pitch, the blue and yellow seen all over the world this weekend. ukraine's colours being held aloft in paris injust one of i20 protests in france, as anti—war protesters gathered to sing the ukrainian national anthem. singing. solemn faces with a solemn message — stop putin, now. translation: the ukrainian | president is some kind of hero, he is a hero, i think that the ukrainian people show us an extraordinary example. the scene was mirrored across europe. in croatia. in italy. in latvia. the netherlands. britain...

stand with ukraine! switzerland. germany, where the russian consulate was covered in red paint... ..and austria. translation: it is important to send a sign of solidarity - and to say that it is wrong what is going on here. as well as in the united states. no—fly zone! a reminder that the feelings about the war being discussed in official chambers and meeting rooms, further amplified on the ground in normal cities and streets. in ukraine, in kherson, russian occupation, with residents holding fierce protests of their own and aware that, as their freedom is taken away in the space of a week, the world stands beside them to demand it back. stephanie prentice, bbc news. german diplomats have called

out their russian counterparts after the russian embassy in south africa said that russia was fighting nazism in ukraine. but it caught the eye of another embassy in the country — the german one... do let me know what is on your mind. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @jamesbbcnews. more on all of our stories on the bbc website, where we will

bring you right up to date with the russian invasion of ukraine as it approaches its 11th day. do stay with us. hello. it is cold and frosty across the northern half of the uk where we have clearer skies and light winds. sunday morning starts off on that chilly note, but some sunshine on offer for much of the day. the lowest temperatures will be across rural scotland, perhaps as low as —8 during the early hours of sunday morning. further south we have more cloud across england and wales producing some spots of drizzle through the morning. cloud should tend to break up with more sunshine for many areas compared to what we saw on saturday. perhaps a bit more cloud for south—western england and into wales as well. further north, light winds and lots of sunshine on offer but towards southern england and wales, a breeze coming in from the north—east and that will take the edge off the temperatures. not feeling particularly warm

with highs of between 7—9 celsius but with the light winds and the sunshine it should be a fairly pleasant day across the north. on sunday night and on into monday morning, cloud still towards the south and south—west, tending to fade so under those clearer skies with light winds, the frost will be even more extensive as we head on into monday morning. that is not quite as low, those temperatures, but many of us seeing a touch of frost to start monday morning. monday, largely dry with spells of sunshine, always a bit more cloud across england and wales, just drifting northwards into northern ireland and southern scotland at times but it will be well broken, so some sunny spells but still chilly at around 7—9 celsius. looking further ahead, high pressure will ease towards the east overnight into tuesday, allowing fronts to work in from the west and as it does, the breeze will be picking up on tuesday from a south—easterly direction and we are likely to see some showers arriving across south—west england and wales and northern ireland later in the day.

ahead of that, a bit warmer by this stage, around 7—11, the top temperature on tuesday. midweek and it looks as though low pressure will try to move in from the atlantic as high pressure slips away the east. that will mean a bit more cloud and rain at times but milder air working in, so after a bit of a chilly start to the new working week it looks like things will turn a bit more unsettled, but also milder from midweek onwards. goodbye for now.

this is bbc news. the headlines. russian forces have continued their offensive in ukraine with heavy bombardment reported north—west of kyiv. bbc correspondent says a steady stream of people have been fleeing the area on foot, taking only they can carry with them to try to find safety. the israeli prime minister has met president putin in moscow to discuss the war in ukraine. they spoke for three hours, also discussing the situation in syria. and the iranian nuclear deal. he now heads to berlin to meet the german chancellor 0laf scholz. visa and mastercard are suspending their services in russia. master cards issued outside the country went work. visa says it will cease all transactions in russia within the coming days.