tonight at ten — on the front line in the second city of kharkiv, devastated by russian shelling, but where local forces are holding out. explosion. pounded for weeks, kharkiv has been decimated, but the resistance of ukrainians holds firm. they've tried to punch through here, again and again and again, and they've failed. the ukrainian armed forces are keeping them at bay. meanwhile, in the south, rescuers search for survivors after a theatre is bombed, with hundreds sheltering in the basement. there are three other major stories to bring you a night including this news delivered by p&0 ferries to 800 staff. i’m

news delivered by p&0 ferries to 800 staff. �* ,., , news delivered by p&0 ferries to 800 staff. �* , ., ., staff. i'm sorry to inform you that this means _ staff. i'm sorry to inform you that this means your _ staff. i'm sorry to inform you that this means your employment is i this means your employment is terminated with immediate effect on the grounds of redundancy. your final day of employment is today. staff were stunned, piano says it's essential. as the cost of living rises and inflation heads for 8%, interest rates are increased again to try to dampen the pressure. and together again after nearly six years, nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe is back with her family in the years, nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe is back with herfamily in the uk back with her family in the uk after being released by iran. coming up in the sport on the bbc news channel — it is a europa league night for west ham. could the hammers be heading into the last eight of the competition?

good evening, from lviv in ukraine. we start tonight with a special report from inside ukraine's second city, kharkiv, which has been under heavy daily bombardment by president putin's forces. it is in ruins and most of the city's 1.5 million residents have city's1.5 million residents have fled but the ukrainian army is continuing to hold off the russian advance. our correspondent quentin sommerville and camera journalist darren conway are the firstjournalists to be embedded with the ukrainian army as they fight the russian advance. russia says it's demilitarising ukraine. instead, it's creating a wasteland. what it can't have, it destroys with vengeance. these were family homes on the edge of kharkiv. civilians are daily targets in vladimir putin's war.

by the back door, a dead russian soldier. suburban gardens have become battlefields from europe's past. but here, the men of ukraine's 22nd battalion have pulled off a miracle. they've stopped the might of the russian army at their city gates. ill—equipped and vastly outnumbered, three weeks on they're still holding the line. russian boots have failed to gain hold here. frustrated, they've sent troops elsewhere, leaving heavy artillery to bomb the city into submission.

explosions. constantine, a former air force pilot, has come out of retirement to fight. translation: this is the first line of defence for the city. _ if they get through here, they will enter kharkiv. this road takes you from russia to the very heart of the city. but the heart of kharkiv, and ukrainian resistance, is still beating. just beyond this position, there's only open country, and russians. they've tried to punch through here again and again and again and they've failed. ukrainian armed forces are keeping them at bay. they've also tried to encircle the city but again they failed. so they're taking out their frustration with artillery,

bombing notjust... you can hear it... bombing not just these front lines, but also the entire population of kharkiv. a russian missile screeches above us. in this crater, six ukrainian soldiers died in a single strike. roman tells us, "they're chickens. "they won't show themselves again, but we'll respond good and proper." and away from the front, no neighbourhood is safe. russian rockets fall all around us.

get in here! get in, get in! this is the reckless targeting of human life. to the south, the invaders are advancing, but here in ukraine's second city, kharkiv stands defiant while russia rages with incandescent fury. and russia knows hundreds of thousands of people are still living here. how do you keep out such horror? explosions. sasha and svetlana's apartment is now the front line. for the men and women

of the ukrainian army, she has a message. translation: i'm very grateful to them for defending our land. | hold on, guys. we will always support you. explosions. both of my daughters and a granddaughter are fighting for ukraine. quentin sommerville, bbc news, kharkiv, in eastern ukraine. in the besieged city of mariupol there are reports many people have survived after a theatre was bombed by russian forces. hundreds of people were thought to be sheltering in the basement. president volodymyr zelensky has accused russia of deliberately targeting the theatre, but russia has denied carrying out the attack. our international correspondent orla guerin reports on the continuing russian assault.

its mariupol, he says, the theatre. here's the russian world. new footage shows what's left of the cultural landmark where so many sought shelter. ukraine says russia deliberately dropped a bomb here. this satellite image shows the russian word for children clearly marked at the front and back of the theatre. that didn't deter russian jets. in the darkness a week ago, crowds of women and children were filmed in the bomb shelter below ground. officials have said the shelter withstood the attack. so far there are no reports of deaths, but

mariupol is still being shelled. and information is slow to emerge. here's what three weeks of russian bombardment have done to the city. the authorities say around 2500 people have been killed, but many bodies lie uncounted in the rubble. hard to believe it looked like this last month, when we filmed these pictures. then, it was a bustling port city. families strolling past the theatre that was loved by so many. including an opera singer who has managed to flee. you know, it's so devastating, it's a very personal story for me, as well and as for a lot of actors and musicians who sang there. it's even more devastating to know that this place actually was a shelter for more than a thousand people, including children.

today, in moments of quiet, some were getting out, leaving their homes and their city with what they could carry or drag. we all left the building, this woman says. i was the last. then there was an explosion. they left us with nothing. we live in the basement. how can we live like that? what was our crime? the street of this strategic city are lifted with evidence of russian attacks. still, the kremlin claims it does not bomb cities and did not bomb the theatre. officials in kyiv say russia is carrying out a genocide. 50 say russia is carrying out a genocide-— genocide. so the intention of

russian aggression - genocide. so the intention of russian aggression is - genocide. so the intention of russian aggression is to - genocide. so the intention of. russian aggression is to destroy mariupol to the ground, but the main thing and the main tragedy that they are losing our people. we will rebuild ukraine, but we will not, you know, we cannot bring back our people. they have died.— people. they have died. today, this exodus of the _ people. they have died. today, this exodus of the living. _ people. they have died. today, this exodus of the living. they _ people. they have died. today, this exodus of the living. they managed j exodus of the living. they managed to flee, though convoys are often shelled. an estimated 300,000 people remain trapped inside the suffering city, where conditions are said to be medieval. orla guerin, bbc news, kyiv. new british intelligence reports suggest moscow's invasion has "largely stalled", with heavy russian losses and fierce ukrainian resistance. for places in ukraine like the city of odesa, yet to witness an offensive, residents are faced with a difficult decision — to leave or stay.

russia is eager to take the crucial port city on the black sea coast. our correspondent andrew harding is in odesa as it prepares its defences, and he sent this report. on ukraine's black sea coast, they're getting ready for the russians. filling sandbags... ..and blocking the streets of odesa, an ancient port city once attacked by lenin, then by hitler, now braced for putin's invasion. some here cling to a sense of normality. "of course the war will come, with all its death and suffering, and for what?" asks 77—year—old alexander. others are already facing immediate, impossible decisions. in odesa's main orphanage, 18 of its children are too sick to be taken abroad.

translation: they need oxygen. how can i move them? am i supposed to take the healthiest to safety and abandon the rest? for now, her plan is to move them all to the basement. up the road at odesa's zoo, the staff have agreed to stay put, whatever the war brings. the director now sleeps in his office, afraid the sound of explosions might panic the animals. and more animals keep arriving, pets dropped off by families preparing to flee. i'm afraid. but we stay here. we love our city and we will stay here. and we will fight. meanwhile, teenage recruits are still signing up for odesa's civil defence units, ready to fight the russians

street by street, knowing it may soon come to that. it is impossible to imagine the russians bombarding this precious city, a place steeped in the russian language, in russian culture, and in centuries of russian history. and yet the events of the past few weeks here in ukraine suggest that this city, odesa, could be under attack at any moment. out of sight, off the coast, a russian armada is a circling. odesa has already sandbagged its most precious monuments. while each new air raid sends people down to the city's old cellars... ..to wait for whatever russia has in store. andrew harding, bbc news, odesa.

the outline of a peace agreement that would bring a halt to the warren ukraine seems to be emerging. in a phone call between president putin and turkey's president at a one, the russian president set out his demands. john simpson has been given details of the call and joins us from istanbul. what do we know? an official of president erdogan, a very senior official, was in on the call and he came half an hour later and did an interview with me. president putin is asking for six key things. four of them are relatively easy, that ukraine should be announced its neutrality, that's to say it won'tjoin nato. well, it's said it won't do that anyway. that it should disarm relatively speaking, that it shouldn't have certain weapons to attack russia with if it actually ever did want to, that should protect the russian

language, something very important and mr putin claims russians have been targeted because of their language and ukraine. and fourthly, something they call denazification. i thought that sounded really fierce, but in fact the turkish official thinks it's quite easy, an undertaking to crack down on neo—nazis. that's the easy bit. two difficult bits which will probably require face—to—face talks between mr putin and president zelensky here, and those two are the territories in donbas, which russia would like to see quasi independent, and secondly, the future of crimea. that would probably be require ukraine to admit that it had lost control of crimea and that russia now had it, a very bitter pill for

the ukrainians to swallow. but no mistaking the real upbeat feeling among the turks. they think there could be peace withinjust among the turks. they think there could be peace within just a among the turks. they think there could be peace withinjust a matter of weeks. could be peace within 'ust a matter of weeks. g ., could be peace within 'ust a matter of weeks. �* ., ,, , could be peace within 'ust a matter of weeks. g ., ,, , ., ~ i. there will be more from here in lviv, a little bit later in the programme, but for now, it's back to huw in the studio. thanks to you, reeta, and the team out there. the other main news today is that p&0 ferries have sacked 800 staff, with plans to replace them with agency workers on lower wages. staff were told in a video call that today was their "final day of employment". p&0 says the changes are necessary for the future of the business, but the company has been widely criticised for the move. the government said it was "wholly unacceptable" and the rmt union said it was "one of the most shameful acts in the history of british industrial relations". our transport correspondent

katy austin reports from dover. p&0 is one of the uk's biggest and best known ferry operators but its shock dismissal of 800 workers has created a storm. the company has made the decision... staff members who were informed in a video that they were losing their jobs sent this footage to the bbc. i'm sorry to inform you this means your employment is terminated with immediate effect on the grounds of redundancy. your final day of employment is today. the company had earlier halted all of its services, and a worker leaving a ferry in hull spoke to the bbc. we didn't know what to do. we had been told by this video message, but we have not seen anything in writing, there was no formal warning and we weren't told about anything beforehand, so what do we do? the rmt union said crew were being

replaced by cheaper workers. a huge impact on the local economy. we have got individuals who have worked for this employer for in excess of a0 years, and we have got individuals who have been with this company for five years and thought they were embarking at a career at sea with a respectable employer, but their hopes and dreams have been thrown up in tatters. we have had children and families coming here in absolute tears. one seafarer told us that an agency sent him to a p&0 ship in scotland but when it became clear he would be replacing the sacked crew he quit and is on the train home. it was just horrible. we started feeling sick and nauseous because we knew what we were doing, we were taking those people's jobs. footage emerged of security personnel approaching a vessel in the northern irish port of larne while affected staff were on it. p&0 ferries which is owned by dubai—based dp world

is blaming its decision on financial challenges. like other ferry companies, p&0 has suffered from a big drop in passenger traffic during the pandemic and the company said today it wasn't a viable business in its current state. it said it had to make swift and significant changes to survive. government ministers have expressed concern... reports of workers being given zero notice and escorted off their ships with immediate effect, while being told cheaper alternatives would take up their roles, shows the insensitive way in which p&0 have approached this issue. a point i have made crystal clear to p&0's management when i spoke to them earlier this afternoon. p&0 said it would offer enhanced compensation packages because of the short notice but labour branded the actions of the company a betrayal of workers who had kept the country stocked throughout the pandemic.

what has happened today is extraordinary and it has been condemned by unions and the tuc has questioned the legality of the way workers were made redundant and the situation is likely to have an effect on the businesses and the passengers who would normally use p&0's services including on the route between dover and calais. its ferries are not running at the moment and the government has been informed that services could be suspended for up to ten days, so while other ferry operators are likely or will provide some alternatives, and level of disruption is expected. thanks for “oininu disruption is expected. thanks for joining us- — for the third time in four months the bank of england has raised interest rates, this time from 0.5 to 0.75% which means rates are at their highest level since the pandemic struck two years ago. the move is part of the bank's attempts to control the rise in the cost of living, with inflation expected to rise to over 8% by the end of the year. energy bills and food costs

are increasing and there's concern the war in ukraine will have an added impact on prices. our economics editor faisal islam has more details. in ayrshire, this family—run coach company had just started to see the light but now price rises are hitting hard. this hasjumped injust the past few weeks. quite a lot to jump. it's the cold wind from russia's invasion of the ukraine that is now sending diesel prices surging to new records. all our holidays and day trips have been based on last year's fuel costs so now obviously with the escalation of fuel prices, to run these is really going to be a drain on resources. it's just been one crisis after another. and the bank of england said today it fears that inflation, the rate at which prices rise, could be even higher at the end of the year, and so has again hiked interest rates. the rate was at 0.5% after last

month's rise and today they were increased again to 0.75%, though the bank suggested they would not go up as fast as expected from here. last month the bank predicted that inflation was already heading for 30 year highs above 7%, well above the bank's target of 2%, but now after the invasion of ukraine, energy prices have gone even higher, pushing forecasts above 8%, and with the energy price cap set to go up again in october, that could top 10% by the end of the year. what you can see very clearly here and on household energy bills up and down the country is just the start of an energy price shock and the problem there is that both growth in the economy and prices go in the wrong direction, growth slowing, prices going up and up, and the issue is that this could last many months more, and it's not at all clear what interest rates going up is going to do to solve it. the consequences of the war

on the most vulnerable have to be addressed by fiscal policy and what we mean, it is means tested, targeted measures that will help people to pay the food and energy bills, and that is super important, also for inflation. while gas and crude oil prices have settled a little in the last week or so, they are still very high, and with food prices surging, as well, this cost of living crisis is now on course to last most of this year. faisal islam, bbc news, in ayrshire. two british iranians nationals, nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe and anoosheh ashoori have been spending time with theirfamilies anoosheh ashoori have been spending time with their families after being released. nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe and anoosheh ashoori had spent several years in prison,

after being accused of spying — charges they've always denied. but the former us secretary of state, mike pompeo, has accused the uk government of paying $400 million in "blood money" to iran in return. it is the early hours of the morning and seven—year—old gabriella cannot wait to see her mother. very much in the background now, the foreign secretary, as everyone strains for a first glimpse of the precious cargo. at last she comes out. can you even begin to imagine what she is feeling? is that mummy? mummy! that's mummy. richard ratcliffe hasn't seen his wife for almost six years, but he knows this is a moment for mother and daughter. crying a hug to make up for all the ones they've missed.

the rest of the family will be queueing up for hugs as well after gabriella. she queueing up for hugs as well after gabriella. ,, .., , , , gabriella. she competes with these two for my attention and _ gabriella. she competes with these two for my attention and i - gabriella. she competes with these two for my attention and i think- gabriella. she competes with these two for my attention and i think for| two for my attention and i think for her, having her own mother back is a really important thing for her, and for her sense of self, and for us nice that the family is back to being a family and we don't have to being a family and we don't have to be out campaigning every five minutes. you don't have to go down the street any more. his minutes. you don't have to go down the street any more.— the street any more. his family could also _ the street any more. his family could also rest _ the street any more. his family could also rest easily, - the street any more. his familyl could also rest easily, anoosheh ashoori is also released and his family are very happy. we don't have to wakej up and fight any more. and he also now gets to sleep in his own bed... sleeping somewhere with no bedbugs, in peace and quiet without 15 other- people in the room, it's... yeah, it must be...

i mean, i can't even begin- to understand how it must feel. still left in iran, though, is morad tahbaz, an environmentalist born in london accused of spying after tracking endangered animals with cameras. it's confusing, it's distressing and we just sort of feel that he is a pawn on a global chessboard. so it's very difficult to fathom. but for richard, nazanin and gabriella, they spent a night together as a family for the first time in six years and tonight a photograph, as they start a new chapter of their lives. caroline hawley, bbc news. let's return now to lviv, and reeta. the russian journalist

who protested against the war in ukraine on a live tv news programme says she's a normal russian woman who could not remain on the sidelines. marina ovsyannikova was detained, fined and then released. she's been speaking to our correspondent in moscow, caroline davies. marina ovsyannikova is not used to being the story. she worked in state media for 18 years until she decided to stage her own protest against russia's actions in ukraine. on monday evening, she interrupted the broadcast, shouting, "no war," and holding up a poster that read, "they're lying to you here." translation: there are lots of conspiracy theories - building up about me, that this was a fake, that it was set up by the fsb, or i am a project of western special services. that's why i had to explain to the world what really happened, the fact that i'm just a normal

russian woman but i could not remain indifferent after russia invaded ukraine. you worked at state media for years. do you have a sense of guilt about that? ifeel, of course, some responsibility lying on me. i was an ordinary cog in the propaganda machine. until the very last moment, i didn't think about it too much. i was happy with my life but discontent was piling up. but, of course, i feel responsibility. yesterday, president putin made it clear what he thought of anyone with pro—western views, calling them traitors. translation: any nation, _ and even more so the russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from traitors and scum, and will simply spit them out like an insect in their mouth, spit them onto the pavement.

this is the channel marina worked for. russian state tv has long been controlled by the kremlin and is the main source of news for millions of russians. since the beginning of what russia called its "special military operation" in ukraine, a number ofjournalists have resigned from several russian state tv channels, but marina is adamant that she wants to stay in russia. what do you think your future now holds for you and your children here in russia? it's a hard question because my eldest son said that i have ruined the life of the whole family. probably he doesn't understand now, but i hope in the future my children will understand this sacrifice was not for nothing. caroline davies, bbc news, moscow. the war here has united the population in the fight against russia.

one in five of the regular ukrainian armed forces is female,