welcome to bbc news, i'm lewis vaughanjones. our top stories: ukraine accuses russia of bombing a children's hospital in the city of mariupol — officials say there are many dead and injured, with children buried under the rubble. the attack happened while a ceasefire was supposed to be in place. mariupol�*s mayor says president putin has destroyed a peaceful city. translation: they wanted to take the lives of our - children, ourwomen, our doctors, who had been fighting for m days of war, for the lives of every child who came under fire from enemy weapons. meanwhile, in neighbouring irpin, uprooted civilians have managed to leave the town. the united nations is calling the situation a "dark, historic first."

the town is being emptied of its residents. and it's notjust happening here. there are other cities in ukraine being bombarded by the russians, where civilians are being driven out. a ceasefire in the eastern ukraine city of sumy is holding, allowing many more people to flee to safety. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky has accused russia of committing a war crime by bombing a maternity and children's hospital in the besieged city of mariupol. a regional governor said at least 17 people had been injured.

the attack came while a ceasefire was supposed to be in place. elsewhere in the country ceasefires did hold, allowing more civilians to flee other besieged cities. our first report is from our international correspondent, orla guerin. a warning — her report contains some distressing images. survivors emerge from the wreckage of a hospital for women and children after what ukraine says was a russian attack. pregnant women were among the wounded, according to the local governor. there was supposed to be a ceasefire in place to let civilians flee mariupol. instead, they weren't safe, even in hospital beds. here, the massive craterjust outside the building. the local mayor said this was utterly evil. translation: today the russian federation led by putin raided

a peaceful city, shelled a children's hospital, destroyed the most valuable thing we have, we, the people of mariupol. they wanted to take the lives of our children, ourwomen, our doctors, who've been fighting for ia days of war for the lives of every child under fire from enemy weapons. russia claims ukrainian forces expelled the staff and patients and set up firing positions. russia also claims it does not fire on civilian targets. tell that to those we met today being carried from irpin, close to kyiv, where the ceasefire held. they survived days and nights of shelling and must now survive life cast adrift as refugees. and what future for around one million of ukraine's children, uprooted in just two weeks? the united nations calls this

a dark historic first. well, hour after hour, people keep leaving irpin, the town is being emptied of its residents, and it's not just happening here, there are other cities in ukraine being bombarded by the russians where civilians are being driven out. this is just one corner of the fastest growing refugee crisis in europe since world war ii. svetlana is among the legions made homeless by vladimir putin. "our house is gone" she says. "we've been in the cellar for ia days with no light,

water or heat. but we will be back for sure." further down the road, immense relief. a reunion forfriends and neighbours — who didn't know if they would meet again. svetla na says... "you are alive, my sunlight." anastasia is finally on her way to relative safely in western ukraine with baby oleg. we first met them two days ago as they fled. but she's concerned for her father who stayed behind in the horror of irpin. translation: he is sitting in the basement, not leaving the house. we pray that all is well with him. he refused to be evacuated. with every day that passes, this looks increasingly like a war on civilians, on their homes, their lives,

their freedom. and many already fear this could lead, sooner or later, to a wider european war. orla guerin, bbc news, irpin. joining me now is mikey kay, who is a retired raf officer and former advisor to the uk's ministry of defence. he served in afghanistan. hello, lewis. let's start with this attack — hello, lewis. let's start with this attack on _ hello, lewis. let's start with this attack on this _ hello, lewis. let's start with this attack on this hospital, i this attack on this hospital, this attack on this hospital, this children's maternity hospital. why would anyone bomb that? , ., , ,

that? lewis, that is the number one question- — that? lewis, that is the number one question. this _ that? lewis, that is the number one question. this is _ that? lewis, that is the number one question. this is not - that? lewis, that is the number one question. this is not the i one question. this is not the first time this tactic has been used in contemporary history. putin has been using this kind of tactic at length and very frequently in syria over the last seven years, since 2015, since putin entered syria. putin will say, and i know this from experience, this is what him and his spokespeople always say, the kremlin spokesperson, the target will have been inhabited by ukrainian forces, and therefore that made it a legitimate target. under the law of armed conflict, and i have worked in the targeting chain in baghdad in a previous life and i was in the military, but under the law of armed conflict, when a building has protected status, such as a hospital or a school, if the building houses the enemy, and under the law of armed conflict

it loses that protection. so thatis it loses that protection. so that is the guys under which putin will be using this tactic, and the tragedy is that there was no way for side to prove what putin or lavrov or peskov, who was the spokesperson, is saying. that is a fascinating _ spokesperson, is saying. that is a fascinating insight into how these things work. as you alluded to, so far the russian forces have not fired on civilian targets, was their response. i am civilian targets, was their response. iam intrigued, how much does the person pulling the trigger, as it were, whether that is in the air or on the ground, know about the targets? on the ground, know about the taraets? ., ., ~' on the ground, know about the taraets? ., ., ~ .,, on the ground, know about the taraets? ., ., ~' .,, ., targets? look, i was involved in the targeting _ targets? look, i was involved in the targeting process, - targets? look, i was involved in the targeting process, and | in the targeting process, and the west has a very stringent targeting protocol, which is called the collateral damage estimate. the collateral damage estimate. the collateral damage estimate is basically a number of algorithms which are used

when targeting something inside infrastructure, and based on that collateral damage estimate, that governs what type of weapon is used. that could be a precision guided £500 bomb from an aircraft, it could be an artillery shell, something that is precision, and the whole thing will be built around and the whole thing will be builtaround minimising built around minimising collateral. builtaround minimising collateral. if built around minimising collateral. if there builtaround minimising collateral. if there are civilians in the area, if there are civilians near the target, that strike will not be approved or authorised, because thatis approved or authorised, because that is against the geneva convention.— convention. and do the russians, _ convention. and do the russians, as _ convention. and do the russians, as far - convention. and do the russians, as far as - convention. and do the russians, as far as you | convention. and do the - russians, as far as you know, do the russians go through that same process? figs do the russians go through that same process?— same process? as far as i am aware- -- — same process? as far as i am aware- -- i — same process? as far as i am aware... i don't— same process? as far as i am aware... i don't know - same process? as far as i am aware... i don't know what i same process? as far as i am | aware... i don't know what the targeting processes either to the russians use, but we have seenin the russians use, but we have seen in syria, we have seen documented evidence of dumb bombs being used dumb bombs cannot precision guided munitions, we have seen cluster bombs used in syria, and also in ukraine. they are not

precision guided munitions. as far as i can see there is no evidence to suggest the russians are using that collateral damage estimate, and there is evidence suggesting that the russians are using what are called thermo barrick weapons attached to rockets, warheads attached to rockets, which are being used to conduct these kinds of attacks. i think it is an interesting point here, in terms of the no—fly zone debate, no—fly zone would not actually prevent this kind of from happening. irate not actually prevent this kind of from happening.— of from happening. we must leave it there, _ of from happening. we must leave it there, but _ of from happening. we must| leave it there, but fascinating to get your insight into the situation. thank you for coming on and talking us through it. in the north east of ukraine, in the city of sumy, thousands of civilians are escaping to relative safety after the russians agreed to a humanitarian route. some 7,000 people were evacuated from the city on tuesday, including hundreds of international students who were taken to safety in two convoys of buses and cars. 0ur eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford is in poltava, where people

have been arriving from sumy. they've not eaten like this for two weeks. because these children have been hiding beneath ground, as their city above was bombed and shelled by russian troops. this morning, they made it to safety. their care home evacuated from the front line. the director tells me the air strikes were the scariest. as we speak, a door bangs somewhere and shejumps. translation: it's not normal. it's so far from normal. at the start, we didn't tell the youngest children that there was war. they didn't know, but theyjust started drawing tanks because they heard the shooting. that's not normal. so, she's trying to get help to get them even further from the fighting. children who were vulnerable even before this war now have new trauma.

there were more air strikes the day their convoy travelled south. russia claims its liberating ukraine, but no one here asked to be saved, orfor their homes, their lives, to be ruined. poltava, to the south, is just one stage in a long and uncertain journey. this girl has been living in a cellar with russian fighter jets flying overhead. her mum can't find them rooms here. "it's too expensive," she says, "and everywhere is full." so most are trying to get out. poltava, to the south, is just one stage in a long and uncertain journey.

poltava has become one giant waiting room, as thousands are now evacuated here away from the front line and the immediate threat, and then stranded. there are people here from all over this region who fled the areas where the fighting is now at its fiercest, and they've come here in hope of getting a ride as far west as possible. but for the moment, there is no information, no trains. they're just standing and waiting. when a train pulls in, they surge forward. it's a moment of hope but it's a fleeting one. this train is travelling east, not west — towards the fighting, not to safety. sarah rainsford, bbc news, poltava. stay with us on bbc news. still to come, we will tell you how the world's most famous undiscovered shipwreck, sir ernest shackleton�*s app endurance, has been found. the numbers of dead and wounded defied belief. this, the worst terrorist atrocity on european soil

in modern times. in less than 24 hours then, the soviet union lost an elderly, sick leader, and replaced him with a dynamic figure 20 years his junior. we heard these gunshots in the gym. _ then he came out| through a fire exit and started firing at our huts. god, we were all petrified. james earl ray, aged a1, sentenced to 99 years and due for parole when he's 90, travelled from memphis jail to nashville state prison in an eight—car convoy. reporter: paul, what's it feel like to be married at last? - it feels fine, thank you. what are you going to do now? is it going to change your life much, do you think? i don't know, really — _ i've never been married before. this is bbc world news.

the latest headlines: ukraine accuses russia of bombing a children's hospital in the city of mariupol. officials say there are many dead and injured, with children buried under the rubble. meanwhile, in neighbouring irpin, uprooted civilians have managed to leave the town. ukraine says the former nuclear plant at chernobyl has lost its power supply, following the site's seizure by russian troops nearly two weeks ago. ukraine's foreign minister, dmytro kuleba, said there must be a ceasefire by russia to allow repairs at chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986. the un's nuclear watchdog says sufficient safety measures are in place, including cooling pools for spent nuclear rods and back—up diesel generators. nuclear policy expert joseph cirincione joins me now from washington.

thank you for coming on the programme. what do you think is the application of this lost power supply at chernobyl? irate power supply at chernobyl? - dodged a nuclear bullet today with the loss of power does not appear to affect the main safety equipment. the director statements earlier today relieved a lot of us about the ability of those spent fuel ponds to maintain integrity, and to prevent any overheating of even these very old fuel rods. i read the stress report done on this in 20 —— on this facility in 2011 and they tested out exactly this kind of incident and they concluded the fuel could remain safe for 50 days after which radiation levels would start to rise. we have avoided a catastrophe now about the situation at chernobyl is untenable we can't go on like this we should

expect similar crisis to erupt in the days ahead. irate expect similar crisis to erupt in the days ahead.— expect similar crisis to erupt in the days ahead. we have that fi . ure in the days ahead. we have that fiaure of in the days ahead. we have that figure of 50 _ in the days ahead. we have that figure of 50 days, _ in the days ahead. we have that figure of 50 days, something i figure of 50 days, something has to change significantly before then. let's move to the other nuclear site, the biggest one russia has taken with staff working around the clock trying to keep that going, how worried are you about that situation? that, as more worrying because thatis that, as more worrying because that is a active nuclear site, the reactors are in standby mode but those fuel rods are hot so they have to be constantly maintained, if you were to lose power there have something would happen to the integrity of the spent fuel poles you could see a fukushima like disaster with the fuel rods melting and spewing out radioactivity. the reason we are so worried about this is nothing normal about the situation. no country, no group has ever occupied a nuclear power plant, no—one has ever

forced operators to maintain the plant at gunpoint, under duress cut off from communication, no shift changes. running a nuclear reaction is tricky business under normal circumstances something like this is completely unprecedented, so you are worried about a major accident by carelessness, fatigue, stress, fight, the collapse of electrical power or new assaults, new fights breaking up that could damage the facility or cut off its electric power. it's multiple incidents we are worried about incidents we are worried about in these facilities.— in these facilities. given all those risks, _ in these facilities. given all those risks, what's - in these facilities. given all those risks, what's in - in these facilities. given all those risks, what's in it - in these facilities. given all those risks, what's in it for| those risks, what's in it for the russians by at the —— why are they taking these risks? it's very hard to understand chernobyl is at the top of the list of places you don't want to go to, at first it seemed to be a military expediency, sees the nuclear power. this may be

something more sinister, a prudent lawyer to hold these plants hostage, threatened sabotage on them, threaten ukraine with an intentional radiological disaster, that is why we are calling for an immediate ceasefire, visits to the plants and visits by international inspectors are so important, even despite everything that is going on, something at these plants could be a catastrophe beyond anything that has seen since chernobyl. anything that has seen since chernobyl-— anything that has seen since chernobyl. thank you joseph cirincione, _ chernobyl. thank you joseph cirincione, thank _ chernobyl. thank you joseph cirincione, thank you - chernobyl. thank you joseph cirincione, thank you for - cirincione, thank you for coming on and giving us these warnings. heineken has become the latest high profile name to suspend operations in russia after macdonalds, coca cola and unilever announced they were pausing operations. the us secretary of state, anthony blinken, says the exodus of international companies is having a profound impact. moscow is accusing the united states of waging an economic war on russia after it banned russian oil. 0ur moscow correspondent, steve rosenberg, reports now on russia's increasing

economic isolation. life is changing for russians. sanctions are making their country look very different. at mcdonald's, final orders. it's suspending business in russia over what it calls the needless human suffering unfolding in ukraine. customer alla believes the russian offensive is destroying russia's future. translation: it's very sad. it's notjust mcdonald's that's closing. all western businesses are shutting down. everyone who can is leaving. it is a symbol of the new times. we will be left isolated. back in the ussr, happier times, when mcdonald's opened up here. the fast food was slow, but only because of the huge crowds of customers. it felt then as if russia was getting an appetite

for good relations with the west. well, i was actually in the queue here 32 years ago when mcdonald's first opened. it actually took me three hours to get inside. and i can remember the excitement in the crowd because for muscovites, this place was a symbol, a symbol of russia opening up to the world, a symbol of east embracing west. but it feels now that that's all gone. and instead, russia's increasingly isolated. international brands are vanishing from moscow's shopping centres. but russians have less money to spend here anyway. sanctions have caused the value of the rouble to plunge. but for those who back moscow's onslaught in ukraine, many of them claim they couldn't care less about global corporations disappearing from the russian market. the era of post—soviet colonisation by the west

started with the arriving of mcdonald's to russia, and the era of sovereign greater russia starts with mcdonald's leaving it. so, have a nice trip. for the moment, moscow is defiant, uncompromising, unapologetic. but russia is intricately connected to the global economy. isolation will hurt. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. let's get some of the day's other news. now to an extraordinary discovery. more than a century after it sank, the lost ship of the antarctic explorer sir ernest shackleton has finally been discovered. 0ur science editor rebecca morelle has the story. emerging from the antarctic deep, the world's most famous undiscovered shipwreck, now found. it is the first time anyone has seen it in more than 100 years.

endurance, perfectly preserved, frozen in time, 3,000 metres beneath the ice. i thought, if there's any wood—built ship that could survive the impact of the sea bed, it will be the endurance, and she did, she held together beautifully. but i have never, ever seen a wreck anything like as beautiful and as inspiring as this one. the condition of sir ernest shackleton�*s ship is astonishing. the ship's wheel is almost pristine. bolts gleam in the woodwork. the portholes look polished. and these white circles are dinner plates, abandoned by the crew. this was the polar ice breaker that brought the team to the wreck. the conditions were challenging. the agulhas ii had to carve its way through the thick ice in the weddell sea. underwater robots were deployed and spent weeks searching

the deep, until the endurance was at last found. probably the most famous as yet undiscovered shipwreck in the world, and now we know exactly where it is. we know what it looks like, we know what condition it's in and we can broadcast images of that around the world. it matters because people will see those images and will connect to this extraordinary story from our history, the greatest story of antarctic survival of all time. and this was the ship just before it sank, captured in footage restored and released by the bfi. the endurance became stuck in sea ice soon after it set off from south georgia, drifting for months before the crew was eventually ordered to abandon ship. the endurance expedition was amazingly well documented, with photographs, film and crucially, navigation records, which were vital for locating the wreck beneath the ice. what is extraordinary

is it was found just four and a half miles, that's about seven kilometres, from the coordinates recorded on the day the ship sank, more than 100 years ago. this was all down to frank worsley, the ship's captain. frank worsley really needs to be recognised now, even more than he was at the time, as an expert navigator. he was using all of the equipment that was at his disposal at the time and clearly, because the ship has been found so close to that location, he did a brilliantjob. the discovery gives us a new link between the past and the present. the ship won't be raised, and nothing will be removed. left exactly as it was found, resting in the darkness of this most remote corner of the world. rebecca morelle, bbc news. plenty more of those amazing

images online. check out those images online. check out those images online. check out those images on our website. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @lvaughanjones. hello there. this week starts off on a cold, chilly note for many of us, but temperatures have been rising as the week's worn on, in fact, we are staying in the very mild theme for the rest of the week, certainly for the working week, but it will become more unsettled with breezy, even windy conditions and also rain at times. now, we've got high—pressure to the east of us over the near continent, low pressure to the west over the atlantic. it's drawing up some very mild airfrom biscay and iberia. this weather front continuing to thicken the cloud up across more central parts of the country today. so we start off with quite a bit of cloud around, bit more cloud generally across england and wales than we had through yesterday morning. cold, frosty start for northern ireland but bright with some sunshine, some sunshine getting

into western scotland, and it will also be bright across eastern england and the southeast, where, again, we will see temperatures very mild for the time of year 1a—15 degrees, even double figures further north and west. it will be a little bit breezier as well. now, as we head through thursday night, it turns cloudy, outbreaks of rain pushing up from central and southern areas, it will spread northwards across northern england and in toward scotland. so more cloud around, more breeze, so it will be a milder night for most of us and a mild night certainly for northern ireland. so that's how it's looking to end thursday, into friday we see a little more active weather front start to sweep in from the atlantic. that will bring more windy weather but also some heavier rain, which will start to push into southwest england and wales, northern ireland, as the day wears on. one or two showers ahead of it, but generally dry and bright, quite mild and windy across northern and eastern areas. this rain will be spilling its way northwards, and it will be a blustery day wherever you are, certainly windy across more northern and eastern areas, especially close to the coast. temperature wise, again, it's pretty mild, highs

of 10—13 degrees, maybe not quite as mild as it will be for thursday because we've got more cloud and rain around. now, into the weekend, it stays unsettled, a particularly deep area of low pressure moves in towards the southwest and the west of the uk during the latter part of saturday into sunday, and as that spreads northwards for sunday, we will see a mixture of sunshine and blustery showers. some of these will be quite heavy. so it is an unsettled picture into the weekend, some wet and windy weather pushing into the south and west later on saturday, and it's sunshine and showers for most on sunday.

this is bbc news, the headlines: ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky has accused russia of committing a war crime by bombing a maternity and children's hospital in the besieged city of mariupol. a regional governor said at least 17 people had been injured. the attack came while a ceasefire was supposed to be in place. elsewhere in the country, ceasefires did hold, allowing more civilians to flee other besieged cities, after the russians agreed to a humanitarian route. some 7,000 people were evacuated from the city of sumy. the united nations is calling the civilian situation a �*dark, historic first�*. russia's increasing economic isolation is continuing after mcdonalds, coca cola and unilever announced they were pausing operations. heineken has become the latest high profile name to suspend operations there. this suspend operations there. is bbc news.

the uk's visa scheme for refugees fleeing the war