this is bbc world news, i'm lewis vaughanjones. our top stories: barricades on the outskirts of kyiv, where they are 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'll 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, with claims russian troops are stopping people from leaving. still no diplomatic breakthrough. talks are described as difficult, with claims president putin is showing no willingness to end the war.

hello and welcome to bbc news. russia's invasion force has advanced towards several ukrainian cities, with more intense fighting reported in the northern outskirts of the capital, kyiv. several explosions could be heard as the city's defenders faced a new russian artillery barrage around the contested town of irpin. air raid sirens went off for a second consecutive early morning in the western city of lviv. 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. our first report is from jeremy bowen on the outskirts of 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. i'm pretty 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? yeah, it's 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's 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're 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 that 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 8:00pm 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 — 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 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're not in the centre of the capital.

it will still take a long time, but it's 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'll have to raze the city to the ground. 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, 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. butjust 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's just 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 now. 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. 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 with 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 urged residents not to take part in what she called "extremist actions". president zelensky says about 1,300 ukrainian troops have been killed since the start of russia's invasion. he said a far larger numbers of russian soldiers had died, but that claim can't be verifed. 0ur security correspondent frank gardner has this assessment of russian�*s military strategy. it looks like, and it feels like, the beginning

of the endgame — although who knows how long that's going to last? if we look at the map here on day 17, the red areas are where russian forces have taken control. in the south, they continue to make advances. they are pushing to the north—west. in the north is where the real battle is going to be fought. that's for the capital, kyiv, around here. now, you remember that great big russian armoured column that was stuck for days north of the capital? most of that has redeployed into the forests to the north—west, moving their artillery and rocket systems within range of the capital, looking to encircle it. if president putin can't take kyiv, then his war has failed. and that appears to be what he is determined to do, is to capture the capital. but it's not going to be an easy battle, and who knows when that assault is actually going to begin? a direct hit on a russian armoured column as it advances on the capital, kyiv. western—supplied anti—tank weapons have slowed the russian advance, but they

haven't stopped it. in the air, russian warplanes remain wary of ukraine's air defences. but they have the advantage of numbers on their side. the latest pentagon assessment is that the russian air force is flying an average of 200 missions a day, compared tojust ten for the ukrainians. now, some of those russian sorties don't even need to cross into ukrainian airspace. they can fire their cruise missiles from inside russian territory. this is what they're up against — western—supplied missile systems plus some old soviet—era stock. the ukrainians have shot down a number of russian helicopters and planes. russia has threatened to start targeting the supply of western weaponry. meanwhile, the pentagon has dismissed fears that some of these weapons could end up with criminals and terrorists.

president putin has made it clear what he intends to do with any anti—aircraft missiles his forces capture from the ukrainians. the kremlin's position towards ukraine has barely moved since the day this invasion began, 2.5 weeks ago. "this war can stop when you want it to. you just need to lay down your arms, surrender, give in to all our demands and forget about being a part of western europe." frank gardner, bbc news. earlier i spoke tojohn gilbert. he is a retired colonel and a chemical, nuclear and biological weapons inspector. 0verfour decades, he has been part of chemical weapons negotiating teams in moscow, geneva and the hague. i asked him for his assessment on whether putin would turn to chemical weapons. 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 that russia possessed is probably very close to zero. 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 you have said there were low 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. this is bbc news. a reminder of the headlines: fighting is intensifying near the ukrainian capital of kyiv, where they are preparing for an assault, possibly within days. satellite imagery shows some of the damage in the 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. 0n the day that putin invaded ukraine, i was going about my 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. a us official has told the reuters news agency that the missiles were 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. 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. 0ur 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 0desa, 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. a reminder of our top story: russia's invasion force has advanced towards several ukrainian cities, with more intense fighting reported in the northern outskirts of the capital, kyiv. air raid sirens went off for a second consecutive early morning in the western city of lviv. more intense fighting has been reported in the northern outskirts of the northern dummy capital kyiv. russian forces have advanced in the south of the country, capturing the outskirts of mariupol which has seen days

of relentless shelling. that's it from me. i'm lewis vaughanjones, 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 25 kilometres from the centre of the city. british military intelligence believes those russian troops have been regrouping, 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. the elysee palace says president putin showed no willingness to end the war with ukraine during a phone conversation between the russian leader and his french and german counterparts. emmanuel macron and 0laf scholz urged mr putin to introduce an immediate ceasefire and begin negotiations with ukraine.