this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: barricades on the outskirts of kyiv, where they're preparing for an assault, possibly within days. president zelensky was asked about it today and he said if the russians, if president putin is determined to take kyiv, he will have to raze the city to the ground. we hear from the young ukrainian recruits at the checkpoints they'll be defending. satellite imagery shows some of the damage in the city of mariupol. ukraine says it was unable to evacuate citizens again, on saturday. still no diplomatic breakthrough — talks are described as difficult with claims president putin is showing no willingness

to end the war. fighting has intensified around the ukrainian capital kyiv, which is bracing itself for an assault by russian forces. soldiers and volunteers have been building new defences and creating barricades on major routes to slow any russian attack on the city. the latest information about russian positions is shown here in red. outside the capital, the cities of chernihiv, sumy, and kharkiv continue to be shelled. while the ukrainian military says the eastern outskirts of the beseiged city of mariupol have been captured by russian troops. ourfirst report is from jeremy bowen, on the outskirts of the kyiv.

pictures of russian forces, time and place indeterminate, emerge from their side. among their potential targets here in kyiv, no—one knows their precise orders, but they're assuming an attack is coming. on the ukrainian side, they're trying to make checkpoints into real obstacles. the professionals are a few miles closer to the russians. the soldiers here are all volunteers, but they are still expected to fight, even with only a few days training. just over a week ago, i met two university friends — maksym, aged 19, and dmytro, 18 — as they signed up in kyiv. what are you studying? i am studying economy. and i am studying biology. most of the recruits that day were about the same age, making jokes to hide their nerves.

when they lined up outside, they looked as if they were off to a festival — except for the guns. now, dmytro and maksym have been given uniforms, three days training and they are facing the russians. get used to my gun, i learned how to shoot and act in the battle, also many other things that will be very crucial during the fight with some russians. i feel much more confident than i was before because we get enough knowledges in tactics. do you think the battle is coming for kyiv? yes, it is definitely possible. but we just have to stop them here in brovary because if they get to kyiv, this war probably might be over. what do your parents think

about what you're doing? "mum, i'm on the war. "i am fighting with a gun in my hands," and she said, "0h, maksym..." "nice joke." "don'tjoke with your mother, it's war. "just sit in the shelter and do your work, volunteer "or do something else." do you feel scared? not much, but it is human nature to feel scared and, of course, deeply in my soul, ifeel a bit scared because no—one wants to die — even if it's for your country — so, death is not an option for us. for now, they are on the checkpoint. if the russians come, they will be firing out of a trench in the war�*s key battle. war always has a political, as well as a military dimension. while president zelensky and his government are here in kyiv, no—one can say that they have been defeated,

even if they are losing territory elsewhere. at the same time, president putin cannot claim victory in this war if his men can't take this city. everyone here is waiting — soldiers, civilians in and out of uniform, and maksym and dmytro. jeremy bowen, bbc news, kyiv. in the last few hours president zelensky has released a new video address. translation: the russian | occupiers cannot conquer us. they do not have such strength. there is no such spirit. they are based only on violence, only on terror, only on weapons, of which they have many but the occupiers have no natural basis for normal life so people can feel happy and dream. they are organically incapable of making life normal. whenever russia has

come to a foreign land, dreams are impossible. our chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, is in kyiv and gave us a sense of the mood in the ukrainian capital. it's bitterly cold and it has been a night of more constant and louder explosions. when the curfew came into force at eight o'clock local time — that's 1800 hours gmt — usually every night, there is some explosions when night falls. we see both explosions, hear explosions in the distance. we sometimes see the surface to air missiles streaking across the skies by the ukrainian forces. tonight, it was far noisier. much louder, more constant — like rolling thunder, for a very long time. that confirms what we know — is that fighting is intensifying on the outskirts of the city, in some places as close as 12 miles and to the east, it's

about eight miles. we understand that in irpin, which used to be a charming suburb on the outskirts of kyiv, it's now flattened and blackened by days and days of russian artillery fire and shelling. that's the place where our viewers may remember the heart—wrenching images of the residents of irpin crossing that rickety bridge made of planks and pipes — the ukrainians had destroyed the main bridge to stop the russians from advancing. but there is now fierce fighting for control of a town which is the gateway to this capital. no—one is in any doubt that kyiv is in moscow's sights. perhaps people hoped against hope that that diplomacy that you heard about might make some progress to cause the russians to pull back, but they've been inching forward since the start of the invasion and they're getting ever closer. they are not in the centre of the capital, it will still take a long time, but it is clear that that is their intent so you feel the mood here is more ominous, greater foreboding, but you also hear the defiance

that the ukrainians will fight. president zelensky was asked about it today and he said if the russians, if president putin is determined to take kyiv, he will have to raze the city to the ground. thanks to lyse doucet. a senior ukrainian minister says around 13,000 people were evacuated from a number of ukrainian cities on saturday but she said no one had managed to leave mariupol and blamed obstruction by russian forces. 0ur reporter, leana hosea, explained why the besieged port is so important. it is strategically important because if russia takes control of it, it would be able to consolidate its territory from the pro—russian enclaves to the east and down towards crimea, so there is intense shelling there now. let's take a look at these latest satellite images of mariupol, where — which were taken on saturday by the private us

satellite firm maxar. this shows fires burning in the industrial district of western mariupol and neighbourhoods badly damaged, as you can see there — black smoke and fire. but nine months ago, lastjune, the satellite took images over mariupol. you can see here what was once a neighbourhood, there is clearly a football pitch which maybe a matter of weeks ago would have been the scene of fun and games but now, obscured with smoke and rubble. and here, we can see high—rise apartment blocks set amongst the trees, just across the street. and now, it isjust a blackened, smoking wasteland. and coming up here, yeah... it's an extraordinary contrast, isn't it, between the images? absolutely, and here's a hospital and look at it — look at it now. hmm. kind of clearly, very damaged. i mean, ukrainian authorities have said that the russian military has captured the city's eastern outskirts

but as an mp from president zelensky�*s party says, they — russia still has not got control over the city. today, we have received information, saying that our troops have managed to repel russian attacks. and russian troops are not yet occupied mariupol — it continues to struggle — but the price might be very high in terms of civilian lives because russia is shelling and targeting deliberately civilian objects and civilian populations. and what's the latest we know, then, about the humanitarian situation there? well, aid agencies are calling it desperate and apocalyptic. this is a city that has been under siege for over a week. people are without water. there's reports of people trying to eat the snow and trying to get water from the river. they are running out of food and there's reports of looting on the street. it's absolutely freezing but there is no heating, so — and there's bodies just on the street — that's what aid agencies

are saying — left over from the bombs, and people are also dying because they have not got access to their medicine, so they may be dying from existing health conditions. so, both sides blaming each other for preventing aid coming in or refugees leaving, but what is clear is that the fighting is too intense and civilians are in a desperate situation. absolutely dreadful details there. thank you. russia's invasion has entered its 18th day and the continued strong resistance from ukraine has military experts wondering if russia will change tactics to secure a victory. john gilbert is a retired colonel in the us army and an expert in chemical, nuclear and biological weapons. he gave me his assessement on what course the war might take.

well, one of the things we're seeing is that putin seems to be increasingly frustrated at the fact that ukraine hasn't collapsed quickly and turned themselves over to him. because of that, i believe it's very likely that he is going to continue to escalate his war against the civilian infrastructure and civilians inside ukraine. part of that may have already started by russian officials claiming, falsely, that ukraine or the united states has been working with chemical or biological weapons. this may be a precursor to an actual russian use of chemicals against civilians in ukraine itself and then blaming it on the ukrainians. yeah, that so—called false flag operation that the west has been trying to warn people, kind of pre—empt, in a sense, getting in there. what about the russian

capabilities, if they do decide to do that? well, under the international chemical weapons convention, years ago, russia declared and opened to inspection all of its chemical weapons stocks. they also dismantled all of their chemical weapon production facilities and destroyed the chemicals themselves under international inspection. so, right now, the inventory of the most lethal chemical weapons russia possessed is probably very close to zero. crosstalk. lots of people would be surprised to hear that. i can say with some confidence that the stocks of things like nerve agents or blister agents, like mustard, are probably very, very low and probably not the first thing that russia might choose to attack civilians with.

interesting. and what about, more widely the state, given there are those supplies, what about the state of the military in your assessment, more widely? the military has certainly underperformed what i'm sure putin expected. there could be a number of reasons for that, but one of the things that i think people need to consider is that most of the enlisted troops in the russian army are conscripts on one or two year commitments. annually, the conscript call—up happens around may orjune, after school is out. and then the conscripts go through a period of training. this past year, most of those who were trained in the 2001 class, went through about four to five months of training, probably not much more, and since then many of them have been living in tents on the western russian border and in belarus. that's probably not what they signed up for.

and, also, for the one year conscripts, their term of service is done in about two or three months. how motivated are they going to be, how aggressive are they going to be in the face of that short period of time left while they are watching many of their counterparts die in front of the ukrainian resistance? i think that's part of what's frustrating putin, the fact that his troops are not performing well. john gilbert there. this is bbc news, a reminder of the headlines: fighting is intensifying near the ukrainian capital of kyiv, where they're preparing for an assault, possibly within days. satellite imagery shows some of the damage in the besieged city of mariupol.

the ukainian government says it was unable to evacuate citizens again, on saturday. president putin has held talks with the leaders of france and germany about the situation in ukraine. let's get more from our europe editor, katya adler. french and german officials said it is difficult, vladimir putin is not open to realistic conditions for a ceasefire, and the kremlin says they used the opportunity to complain about alleged human rights abuses by ukrainians on russian soldiers, so you could say, well, you know, what is the point of these conversations? what else went on in those 75 minutes? i mean, emmanuel macron has held about ten of these calls already since russia invaded ukraine. he's been criticised by some at home and abroad as being naive or arrogant or being played by moscow, and i actually put that to him a couple of days ago and he said, you know, these calls are not a whim of his — they are coordinated with all of the western allies. so, i mean, he and france,

like 0laf scholz in germany, they are imposing sanctions on russia, they are supporting the military in ukraine but, they say, in case vladimir putin looks for that off ramp, if he is ready for a ceasefire, when he is available to talk, negotiate realistically, then it is important to keep these lines of communication open and ready and so, emmanuel macron has said you know, these calls to the kremlin, they will continue. katya adler with the european perspective. the russian military have installed a new mayor in melitopol after video on friday appeared to show the previous mayor being kidnapped. this was the footage showing the previous mayor, ivan fedorov, being led away by russian soldiers wiht a bag over his head. he had refused to co—operate with russian troops who have ta ken over the city. a former member of the city council called galina danilchenko is now the acting mayor — she has appeared on local television to urge residents not to take part

in what she called "extremist actions". in russia, the kremlin continues to try to control its narrative for the russian public about what it calls a �*special military operation�*. in the last three weeks, thousands of people have been detained for protesting against the war. but there is strong support among some, for the reassertion of russia's influence in the region. 0ur moscow correspondent, caroline davies, reports. upbeat music scroll through russian—run social media, and these are the sorts of videos you might see. upbeat russian patriotism, as the country becomes more isolated. in russia, even cheese can be political. the owner of this factory posted a video on social media praising president putin. his business wouldn't exist if the russian leader hadn't put sanctions on european cheese.

some are already bound economically to the kremlin's success. translation: in 2011, i was going out with a poster saying, "putin, go away." i didn't support the president then. i was thinking our country was going the wrong way. but in 2014 he returned us crimea, started protecting russian products, started supporting agriculture. i changed my mind and started supporting him. but signs of support don't only exist on screens. since we've been driving around the outskirts of moscow, we have now seen several vehicles with z markings on. some havejust been drawn in the dirt on the back of them. others have been marked in tape. all of them, a sign of support for the russian army in ukraine. the letter z, which first appeared on the side of russian military vehicles, is now evident across russia — from filmed candlelit gatherings, to some buses and trams, like here in suburban moscow. "i support this," says vyacheslav. "it's our country, it's our army."

"i'm positive about this," says inna, "we must support our own, regardless of who's right and who's wrong." what's been really interesting, speaking to people here, is how often the same expressions come up. the sort of expressions you quite often see on social media as hashtags, or being said on the state media too. it's also worth saying that there were people here who said that they didn't agree with the z signs, but those people didn't want to go on camera. and the propaganda... many who used to protest now only feel able to speak publicly once they've left the country. a few days ago, mark and his family escaped to nepal. he is trying to speak to loved ones in russia about the conflict. many of my relatives were having doubts after we spoke to them. but later, they watch tv again and told me, "well, no, idon't think you're right. well, i believe putin, he is very powerful. there are enemies everywhere."

i just can't understand how they can believe it, but they do. and if you tell someone the same thing, over and over again, it becomes like truth. as russia shuts off independent media, there is less to challenge the kremlin's narrative, and the patriotic drumbeat telling russians to support president putin is only getting louder. carolyn davis, bbc news, moscow. let's get some of the day's other news in iraq, the state news agency says the city of erbil has been hit by several missiles. video on social media shows several large explosions in the vicinity of the american consulate. no casualties were reported. us official has told the reuters us agency that the mirza was fired from iran. the saudi authorities have executed 81 men — the largest number of executions carried out there in a single day. the saudis say the men

were guilty of serious crimes, including murder and rape, but activists estimate half of them belonged to the marginalised shia minority. a soviet—era scouting drone has crashed near the croatian capital, zagreb. authorities there say it's not clear who launched the military drone, which apparently flew from ukraine across hungary, without being intercepted by nato. investigators will examine the black box of the drone, which narrowly missed a student dormitory when it crashed the number of people arriving in moldova to escape the war in ukraine is so high that every eighth child in the country is a refugee. the moldovan government says its infrastructure is already saturated. our correspondent, lucy williamson, has more. sometimes, the long, cold journey from ukraine ends here. in the emergency department of moldova's ignatenco children's hospital. within the last week alexey has fled a war, left family and is living

in a new country as a refugee. a high temperature almost counts as normal. around a dozen refugee children arrive here every day, often suffering from dehydration or breathing problems. tanya came straight here from the border. her daughter sofia caught pneumonia on theirjourney from dnipro in central ukraine. she spent two days in intensive care. "i'm completely broken", she told me. "they were bombing everywhere. "it's horrible. it's why everyone's leaving." every eighth child in moldova is now a refugee and as the fighting creeps closer to moldova's border, the numbers keep rising. fewer than half the refugees arriving here actually stay on but that is still enough to have increased moldova's population by 4% in a fortnight. the equivalent of 2.5 million people arriving in the uk. even without any dramatic changes at the front line, we are approaching breaking

point, but if there is a dramatic implosion of fighting around odesa, that would be a complete catastrophe for the humanitarian situation here. we cannot plan, we cannot prepare. it would just be completely overwhelming. charities say it's already proving difficult to keep track of some children fleeing ukraine. we've had verified by local authorities who have asked us to help receive 150 children through one of the border crossings, between them leaving that orphanage and the time that we anticipated they would be at the crossing, all 150 children have gone missing. we have no idea where they are. border checks across the region are minimalfor those fleeing the war, but protection rests on making sure the vulnerable are visible because it is hard to protect them if they're not. lucy williamson, bbc news, moldova. let's show you the scene

in kyiv right now. it is coming up to half past six in the morning, another day, the 18th day since russia �*s invasion, russian troops within 25 kilometres or so of the capital, and british intelligence is suggesting that the russian offensive could be within days. the ukrainian president vlodymyr zelensky says 1300 ukrainian troops have died in the conflict so far. we have a constantly updating live page on the events in ukraine on our website. our correspondents in ukraine and elsewhere are adding their thoughts and analysis all the time. log on to the bbc news website as well. you can get me on

social media, online on twitter. i'm lewis vaughan jones, and this is bbc news, goodbye. hello there. cloud, wind, and rain moving in from the southwest will dominate over the next few hours. it's an area of low pressure that will gradually sit towards the west of northern ireland, that's where we will see the strongest of the winds and perhaps the heaviest of the rain throughout the day this sunday. elsewhere, there is a weak weather front which will produce some showery rain through central and eastern scotland and eastern england first thing. that will ease away, sunshine comes through and a scattering of showers across england and wales, some of them heavy and thundery. the sharper showers, the most frequent rain likely to be to the northwest, that's where we will see the strongest of the winds as well, 50—60 mph gusts not out of the question. windierfor all of us through sunday, top temperatures though 9—13 celsius. if you dodge the showers and keep a little bit more

sunshine, that will feel pleasant enough. now, as we move out of sunday into monday, start a new working week, we are likely to see this weather front here bringing some outbreaks of rain to begin with, but on the whole, it's an improving picture. much lighter winds on monday, that means with the sunshine coming through, it will feel noticeably warmer out there. so the rain quite light and patchy, and it will drift its way steadily eastwards and fragment further into the afternoon. more cloud for scotland but generally sunny spells, a few isolated showers, lighter winds and highs of 1a degrees on monday. now, with some clearer skies, we could see some patchy mist and maybe some fog forming first thing on tuesday morning. it's going to be a chilly start on tuesday. the fog will lift, we will have sunshine coming through, not a bad day, largely dry with light winds for all of us, and again, pleasant enough, 1a degrees the high. wednesday, the middle part of the week, looks likely to be the day where some of us will see some rain at some point, and some of it quite heavy in actualfact. now, to the south of this weather front, it could turn very mild indeed with more of a southerly flow across eastern and

south—east england. so, here, 16 degrees not out of the question, but some of that rain really could be quite heavy, and behind those weather fronts, up into the far northwest, here, it will be noticeably cooler, 8—9 celsius the overall high. so, that's how we are looking through the middle part of the week. let's just summarise that for you one more time. it looks likely that our week ahead will be largely dry with lighter winds and mild, but looks likely that on wednesday, there will be some rain for all of us at some point. take care.

this is bbc news. the headlines: furtherfighting has been taking place outside the ukrainian capital, kyiv, where russian forces are around 25km from the centre of the city. british military intelligence believes those russian troops have been re—grouping, possibly for a fresh offensive that could happen in the coming days. a senior ukrainian minister says around 13,000 people were evacuated from a number of ukrainian cities on saturday, almost twice the number who were able to get out the day before. but no—one managed to leave the besieged port of mariupol, blocked by russian forces. in iraq, the state news agency says the city of erbil has been hit by several missiles. video on social media shows several large explosions in the vicinity of the american consulate. no casualties were reported. erbil is the capital of the autonomous kurdish region in northern iraq.