this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm lukwesa burak. our top stories... the russian invasion of ukraine continues — trapped for 30 hours under rubble, after shelling in the city of mykolaiv, a ukrainian soldier is pulled out alive. very tense here — it looks like there are planes overhead we heard explosions and soldiers are telling us to leave quickly, which is what we are doing now. 80% of buildings in the port city, mariupol, have been damaged by the russian assault. those who've managed to get out describe what they've fled. translation: there is no mariupol, we sat in a cellar and did _

not leave once. we had no electricity. no water. two former british prime ministers join calls for a new nuremberg—style tribunal, to investigate vladimir putin for his actions in ukraine. welcome to bbc news. fierce fighting continues in ukraine — more than three weeks after russia launched its full—scale invasion. ukraine's president has called for comprehensive peace talks with russia "without delay". volodymyr zelensky also accused russian troops of causing a "humanitarian disaster" in the besieged city of mariupol. the mayor of the stregically important port, says street fighting is hampering efforts to rescue

hundreds of people, trapped inside the basement of a theatre, that officials say was bombed by russia on wednesday. let's get the latest on the ground. my colleague, james reynolds, is in the western city of lviv. it is still reasonably quiet here in western ukraine, in the city of lviv. a mixture of people who are from here and people who have fled here. and tonight, many people will be turning to their phones to try to find information of relatives and other parts of the country, closer to the front lines. their attention, and our attention now, turns to the south of ukraine, to mykolaiv. you might know that yesterday there was a russian strike near the city, on a ukrainian base, which killed many ukrainian service people. my colleague, are corresponded, andrew harding, has spent the day there. hunting for survivors in the ruins of a ukrainian army base. it's believed 200 soldiers were in these buildings when russian missiles struck. ukrainian officials aren't saying how many died here, but local sources have told us it could be well over 100.

and then, suddenly, a survivor is found. after 30 hours under the rubble, in freezing temperatures. his name unknown for now, most likely a local recruit fighting for a city that is taking a hammer blow. and then it is time to move, fast. come on, guys. let's go. the sound ukrainians have come to dread. very tense here. i heard some explosions _ very tense here. i heard some explosions and the soldiers told us to live _ explosions and the soldiers told us to live very— explosions and the soldiers told us to live very quickly, which is what we are _ to live very quickly, which is what we are doing now. a few minutes later, the all clear, but nerves are wearing thin in mykolaiv, the front line for russia's black sea offensive. translation: i can't tell you how scared we are. l we all live in the cellar now. when the bombs hit the army base, everything shook. and everyone's phones

are filling up with pictures of their cities' agonies. along the coast, a glimpse of how much worse things could still get. this is mariupol, or what is left of it. besieged by russia, hundreds of thousands of people are still trapped in the city, heavy fighting means no way out for them and no way to bring in food or water. back in mykolaiv, another air raid siren and the knowledge that russia is notjust looking to kill ukrainian soldiers. as we have seen today, the russians are sometimes targeting purely military sites, but more often than not it is civilian neighbourhoods like this one that are getting hit. nine people who were queueing on a street outside these shops were killed a few days ago by a russian bombardment. just two blocks away, andrei is trying to clear up after this.

by chance, he and his family were away when the bomb hit. "this isn't a war between armies," he says, "the russians are trying to destroy us all." and nearby, at the army base, the search for more sui’vivoi’s goes on. andrew harding, bbc news, in mykolaiv, southern ukraine. at night, across ukraine, the safest place for many families to be is in a basement or a cellar or a shelter, whatever they can find to protect them from air raid sirens, from missiles, from rockets. many of these shelters underground were built decades ago in soviet times to protect from a different enemy and different threats. they have now become useful again. my colleague, our international corresponded, orla guerin, has spent time with one family in a soviet—era shelter in the capital, kyiv.

the nightly routine as the curfew descends, they seek refuge below ground in kyiv. we cannot say exactly where. some are glued to the radio. like a scene from wars gone by. and they bed down in darkness. forced into the shadows. our guide is zoe, a teacher and translator driven from her own bed by russian attacks. they bombed the city close to my apartment. at five o'clock in the morning, i got up like crazy, i did not know what to do, it was frightening. the building was shaking like this, and after that, i decided to come here. i'm sorry. before i watched it only in the movies. of the second world war starting.

but now we are in this reality, you know? in a makeshift bedroom nearby, another echo of the past. a discarded lenin. many believe vladimir putin is trying to drag ukraine and europe back to the dark days of the soviet era. at the dinner table, the discussion among friends and neighbours is about the defences around the city. and there are other worries here. like what to tell the children. julia says her six—year—old keeps asking questions. we tell her she has to cope for a little while and we hug her and kiss her, she says. then it's bed time.

mother and daughter counting sheep. a familiar ritual in a time of danger and uncertainty. how, then, does this war end? ukraine's president zelenskiy has suggested that wars end in agreement. to that end, he has suggested direct talks with his russian counterpart, vladimir putin. they haven't happened so far. what chance is there of those talks being successful? my colleague, our chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, assesses from the capital, kyiv. well, there's a lot of talk about peace talks, that is what can be said.

president zelensky said it is time to talk and time to meet, saying this will take generations for russians to recover from this. what did we hear from president putin? he told a big stadium where people either gathered saying we will carry out our plans. we can see on the ground his plans are not finished, we know at the minimum he wants to secure his southern belle to a land corridor between the two areas. the negotiators are talking and seem to be making progress, but until progress is made on the ground we don't know how much president putin once, and they talk about talks will just be talk. once, and they talk about talks will just be talk-—

just be talk. lyse doucet in kyiv. the curfew _ just be talk. lyse doucet in kyiv. the curfew will _ just be talk. lyse doucet in kyiv. the curfew will begin _ just be talk. lyse doucet in kyiv. the curfew will begin here - just be talk. lyse doucet in kyiv. i the curfew will begin here shortly. the curfew will begin here shortly. the streets are already empty, though. but people will be able to get out of their homes tomorrow morning to go and buy things from the shops, to sit out and have copy and have some kind of breatherfrom being trapped inside. by contrast, in other parts of the country, curfews are lasting lot longer, particularly now in the southern town of zaporizhzhia, where a 13 hour curfew has been announced following a russian missile strike. my following a russian missile strike. my colleague has been there. the city of mariupol has been virtually flattened by russian artillery fire. any recent days and weeks, those who have been able to flee have been coming through here, many of them including children being treated at local hospitals. but the big fear here is that this city will become the next target for

the russian offensive. indeed, in recent weeks, there have been sporadic missile attacks in the area, and in the last 2a hours seven people were reported to have been killed in attacks against a local training base and factories. and that has meant a curfew has now been declared, a 38 hour curfew, in this city declared by the army and by local authorities. and that has already led to pretty big queues at checkpoints in the city. people fleeing, many north. of course, the fear is that even though many of these big old civic buildings are standing, that this is that he will soon resemble what has happened in mariupol. well, here in the west of ukraine, which is still relatively safe, when the curfew ends in the morning many people will go outside and they might head to the train station. they might do so to catch

the train that takes them across the border to poland, and to much greater safety. a little earlier on, i spoke to my colleague from the bbc ukrainian service he was at the train station. i ukrainian service he was at the train station.— ukrainian service he was at the train station. i want to say where we are staying — train station. i want to say where we are staying right _ train station. i want to say where we are staying right now - train station. i want to say where we are staying right now is - train station. i want to say where we are staying right now is the i we are staying right now is the railway station in the western ukrainian city of lviv, and this is one of numerous trains which is about to depart. it leaves for poland, or a polish town. there is no precise schedule but it is about to depart. and believe me, almost everybody on this train doesn't believe that it might be one way journey for them. people really believe that they will return to their homeland as soon as possible. i know that the family of one of my friends, one of my friends is about to take one of these vacation trains to take one of these vacation trains to the polish town within the next

day. her mother, brotherand grandmother. then they will go to poland, from poland to france, in order to reunite with the family there. so that is the reality for many, many ukrainians, for hundreds of thousands of refugees from this country that have to flee it, flee the war not of their making. i talked also to many other people who are staying here in western ukraine. i had to remind yesterday the aircraft repair plant in lviv was hits by russian missiles, and many of the people that fled the war in other parts of the country and found safety here in this part of ukraine, now they are worth worried by this situation. but many the western part

of the country is the only safe place they can hope for. many mothers whose sons serve in the army or they just continue mothers whose sons serve in the army or theyjust continue their civilian work in this country, they want to stay in this ukraine, support their children, support their grandchildren, support their families. it doesn't mean that everybody wants to flee the country. and this is still the safe place for ukrainians. and this is still the safe place for ukrainians-— and this is still the safe place for ukrainians. . ., ., ., , ukrainians. zhanna, how do people think that ukrainians. zhanna, how do people thinkthat the — ukrainians. zhanna, how do people think that the war _ ukrainians. zhanna, how do people think that the war is _ ukrainians. zhanna, how do people think that the war is going - ukrainians. zhanna, how do people think that the war is going to - ukrainians. zhanna, how do people think that the war is going to end? | think that the war is going to end? yeah, so first of all the biggest hope of all people, on this train, people in lviv, people in other regions of ukraine, that this war can end really soon, within a few

months. the second point is that people really listen very attentively to what president zelensky says in his televised speeches, which already became part of everyday schedules for many people, people follow what the president says every morning, night, in shelters, in basements of this country. so he has said it very clearly it is time to speak for ukraine and russia, but the end of the war bought ukraine means there must withdraw all russian ground troops from the north of the country, from the south of the country, from the south of the country and from the east of the country. and if we have time, i can give you just a very good symbol of the expectations, how people see the end of the war. when the russian ground troops entered the areas close to kyiv, theirfierce ground troops entered the areas close to kyiv, their fierce fighting for the airport. started just in the

first days of war, and the russian army destroyed the big transport aircraft that was produced in ukraine, so now you can see the posters all across ukraine saying that you, russian occupiers destroyed our dream, but we are ready and we will build the new dream. "more powerful and more beautiful." that is the end of the war for ukrainians. beautiful." that is the end of the warfor ukrainians. find beautiful.�* that is the end of the war for ukrainians.— beautiful." that is the end of the war for ukrainians. and when day breaks here. _ war for ukrainians. and when day breaks here, many _ war for ukrainians. and when day breaks here, many more - war for ukrainians. and when day breaks here, many more people. war for ukrainians. and when day i breaks here, many more people will head to the train station for that short right out of ukraine and into the european union, into what they would hope would be much greater safety. more than 3 million ukrainians have made thisjourney in the last few weeks.

james reynolds in lviv. in the past hour, it's been reported that a total of 6,623 people were evacuated from ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors, reports for saturday. ukrainian officials say it was considerably less, compared to friday's attempts — with more than 9,000 evacuees having managed to leave the warzone. in an online post, the deputy head of the president's office, recorded 11,128 people who had left the besieged port city of mariupol. russia says it's used hypersonic missiles to destroy an underground weapons storage unit in western ukraine. it's the first time they've admitted using these types of missiles in combat. james bosbotinis is an independent specialist in defence and international affairs. he told us more about these types of missiles.

yes, the kinzhal is an air launched ballistic missile. it can travel at speeds up to ten times the speed of sound and has a range of about 2,000 kilometres. it's designed to provide precision strike capability against both targets on land and at sea. it entered service in late 2017 and, as noted, this is its combat debut. the speed of the kinzhal puts it beyond the reach of any ukrainian air defence system. and the launch platforms, in this case, the mig31—ik, can launch from ranges beyond the reach of ukraine. the kinzhal was likely launched from southern russia. so, unfortunately for ukraine, there's no chance of defending against these hypersonic weapons. two former british prime ministers — gordon brown and sirjohn major — have called for a new international

tribunal to be set up, to investigate vladimir putin for his actions in ukraine. they've signed a petition, alongside 140 academics, lawyers and politicians — campaigning for a legal system, modelled on the nuremberg trials, of nazi war ciminals after the second world war. gordon brown spoke to bbc radio 4 earlier. go back to 1942, when the allies got together and said that they would punish war crimes and that led to the nuremberg trials, what's unique about this is that we're seeing, as you just reported from mariupol, the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, which is against international law, the targeting of schools, hospitals and public buildings, against international law, we're seeing the breach of humanitarian ceasefires, we're seeing the breach of humanitarian corridors that are being created by the russians and of course we are seeing nuclear blackmail. all of these things are adding up to massive loss of life, of course.

the petition was started by phillipe sands. he's a specialist in international law. he explained how the system could work. the idea that is beginning to slowly come together is the creation of a tribunal established by a small number of countries drawing on the criminal law of ukraine and russia, which criminalises the crime of aggression and internationalises the process. it might be situated in the hague, it would have an international investigator, an international prosecutor, it would maybe have international judges, as well as ukrainian judges, this follows precedents that already exist in international law. and the first thing it would do is gather evidence and identify persons of interest. it's not complicated, unlike war crimes and crimes against humanity which take years to put together because you have to link the act that is a crime with the perpetrator and that's pretty tough for crimes against humanity and war crimes. the crime of aggression is pretty straightforward. the second thing that would happen is you'd create that list of persons

of interest and that, ithink, would begin to galvanise people's attention. as the west continues to impose harsh economic sanctions on russia, it's looked to china — the world's second largest economy — for support. however, beijing has so far refused to condemn the russian invasion and continues to buy its oil and gas. on friday, us presidentjoe biden warned his chinese counterpart there would be consequences if beijing chose to aid moscow, more explicitly. but will they listen? dr theresa fallon is the director of the centre for russia europe asia studies, which is a brussels based think—tank. here's her analysis. well, i think they're trying to sit very carefully on the fence and not look like they are too close to putin and not to upset big markets in europe and asia. but i think that this has become

very problematic after the recent meeting or phone call with president biden _ we saw the meeting on monday in rome. it was a seven—hour long meeting with jake sullivan and his chinese counterpart, and that was very testy from what i've been hearing. and so the call yesterday was really to kind of show and demonstrate to the rest of the world whose side beijing is on. and so they haven't really clarified their position, clearly they are still backing russia _ so initially they would not support sanctions. that was a key indicator. also, if we go back to the february 4th agreement that was signed between president xi and president putin in beijing in the run—up to the olympics, they showed that they have a vision of the future, how they see the new world order, and they need to cooperate and coordinate. the leaders of india and japan have called for an immediate ceasefire in ukraine, in a joint statement following talks in delhi. there was no condemnation

in the statement of russia for its invasion of ukraine. india's prime minister, narendra modi, who wants to maintain close ties with moscow — didn't even explicitly mention the conflict in press comments after their meeting. russia's space agency has denied that three of its cosmonauts were showing support for ukraine by boarding the international space station wearing yellow uniforms. the cosmonauts docked safely on friday, for a six—month mission, joining american, german and russian crew already on board. prompted speculation they were protesting against the invasion. but a statement from roscosmos said, "sometimes yellow is just yellow." it said the cosmonauts' flight suits matched the colours of the univeristy they attended. ballet stars from around the world are rehearsing for a gala performance in london this weekend. funds from the charity event will be donated to the disasters emergency committee, which is providing aid to people fleeing ukraine. the bbc�*s tolu adayoye reports. uniting against war through the arts.

royal ballet principal argentinian marianela nunez will be among those performing. former ballet star ukrainian ivan putrov is one of the artistic directors of the show. his mother recently arrived in the uk, having escaped the conflict. it took several attempts and a long time by road and then flying from hungary in the end, so i'm very happy that she's safe and she will be here at the performance. other members of family are still in ukraine. it's difficult. 0ne can't really quite describe... in a way, producing this in two weeks distracted me from what is happening. the gala is at the london coliseum. 2,500 tickets were sold within 48 hours. the english national opera has waived its usual rental fees. it will also support the event musically. there will be dancers from across the world, including brazil, japan, argentina, france, the uk, as well as russia. we would like to show that

russian doesn't equal aggression, russian doesn't equal what's happening now, it doesn't mean support for this war and it should not be... ..thrown away or cancelled. you know, we... i love my russian friends. romanian ballet star alina cojocaru has co—directed. she trained alongside ivan in kyiv and will be performing at the gala. i hope i'm not going to get too emotional on saturday, but part of us... it's dancing out there on stage in hope. the message we want to send with this is that we are dancers, we are musicians, we are human beings and all we want to do is to do the little bit that we can. that i choose not to stand by thinking, "there is nothing i can do about it, it is overwhelming, i have no power," to say, "there is something i can do and i am doing it right now." let's not think we have no power.

tolu adayoye with that report. you are watching bbc news. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @lukwesaburak. back with more shortly. don't go away. hello, again. it's been the warmest day of the year so far. temperatures earlier this afternoon reached 20.2 celsius in the highlands in scotland. there were a few places in portugal that got a little bit warmer than this, up to 22 degrees but otherwise this was actually one of the higher temperatures that we saw in europe, certainly beating all of these warm spots, athens todayjust nine celsius. but it could have been worse for those seeking out a bit of warmth in turkey, that hadn't gone so well today, it has been snowing in istanbul, for example. leaving europe's weather behind, and back to our weather, we're looking at dry conditions overnight tonight. the brisk winds we are seeing by day

will slowly moderate somewhat and most parts will stay clear and starry. there will be a few patches of cloud in the south—west, maybe a few mist and fog patches from the vale of york and east of scotland with a few patches of frost here and there in the countryside. a chilly start to the day on sunday and although the high pressure is still hanging on, it's not going to be as warm as it was on saturday because we've got some slightly cooler air moving its way in from europe. most areas will keep the sunshine all day. there will be a bit more cloud in northern ireland and the cloud will tend to build in east anglia, threatening a few afternoon showers. the temperature is not as high, 9—13 celsius. a few showers from east anglia running into eastern areas of england. might even have some hail in some of those. but we are going to start to warm up the weather into the new working week. on monday, high still dominating, this weak area of low pressure could bring the odd shower to eastern scotland but otherwise it is staying fine, temperatures rising, looking at 13 degrees

in cardiff, 15 in london, cool air with us for a time in scotland but through monday into tuesday, we will get an increasing flow of southerly winds pushing that milder air further north and boosting temperature significantly. tuesday, plenty of sunshine for most areas, there could be a few afternoon showers across central regions of the uk, but look at these temperatures, 19 celsius in london, 16 for cardiff, getting warmer for northern ireland and scotland — 1a, 15 degrees here. and we keep the mild weather with lots of spring sunshine later in the week as well. that's your latest weather.

this is bbc news, the headlines... fierce street fighting has been hampering efforts to reach hundreds of people still trapped beneath a bombed theatre in the ukrainian port of mariupol. civilians who have been able to escape mariupol say conditions in the city are terrible. rescuers in the port of mykolaiv are searching for survivors among the rubble of a military barracks that was hit on friday in a russian missile attack. dozens of people are thought to have died. the un human rights office says that at least 847 civilians have been killed in ukraine since the russian invasion began. most of the casualties were caused heavy artillery, missile and air strikes. russia's space agency has denied that three of its cosmonauts, were showing support for ukraine by boarding the international space station on friday — wearing yellow uniforms. a statement from roscosmos said — �*sometimes yellow is just yellow�*.