welcome to bbc news. vladimir putin has threatened to stop natural gas supplies to what he called "unfriendly countries" unless they switch to payments in roubles from friday. in an address to officials, the russian president said germany calls it black male. in an address to officials, the russian president said if countries did not open rouble accounts, they will be deemed in breach of contract and the contracts cancelled. translation: we suggest - to our counterparties from those countries that clear and transparent scheme in order to purchase russian natural gas,

they should open rouble accounts in russian banks. it's exactly from those accounts that payments will be executed for the gas supply starting from tomorrow, the 1st of april. in case such payments fail and are not executed, we'll consider them as non—payments from our counterparties. nobody sells us anything free of charge, and we are not going to do charity either. all the existing contracts will be suspended. jenny hill, our correspondent in moscow, has been following mr putin's announcement. i think this is partially for a domestic audience, he is saying that these people are dependent on us and they are going to pay for it in

roubles. it's also his way of saying to the west, you impose these sanctions on ice which means that foreign payments are tricky and the transfers are tricky, so it's going to hurt you. i think it's worth taking a bit of a closer look at the actual decree that he signed today because in practice what will happen from has set up a special mechanism for these payments. a country like germany, well, they will actually pay euros into a russian bank account, special bank account, that bank will then take those heroes, trade them on the stock exchange here in return for roubles. those roubles will go back into another russian bank account from which the final payment to the gas company will be paid. a little bit more convoluted than perhaps vladimir putin suggested in that press conference there. it's going to be interesting to see how countries react to that, because actually vladimir putin had a telephone call with the german chancellor when he explained this mechanism who came away with the impression that that meant he would now be able to

effectively pay in euros. that was jenn effectively pay in euros. that was jenny hale- _ effectively pay in euros. that was jenny hale- us — is on the effect of russian forces around the capital —— the us says only a fifth of russian forces around the capital kyiv have actually moved from the area, despite a declaration by russia earlier in the week that it would pull back from there and focus on the east of the country. this is the latest map of russian positions in ukraine. nato secretary general, jens stoltenberg, says russian units are not withdrawing, but repositioning. from lviv, our correspondent anna foster sent this report. five weeks into this war, ukraine is bracing itself for a new offensive. its forces are now preparing to resist a fresh assault on the eastern donbas region. days after russia said it would move troops away from the capital, kyiv, the city still reverberates with the sound of shelling. translation: we do not believe anyone. - we do not trust any beautiful verbal constructions. there is a real situation on the battlefield and now this

is the most important thing. we will not give up anything, and we will fight for every metre of our land and for every person. here in lviv, and across ukraine, there is real anger towards the russian invaders. emotionally, how do you feel about russia? emotionally? i just hate them. we are ukrainians, we have our own country, our own culture and we will keep it. for millions of people, this city has been a gateway — a route out of this war. those who stayed behind share their pain. i don't feel these people are strangers. they are sisters and brothers, truly painful. it tears me apart and today it is 4 million people and there is a possibility it will be 6 million people tomorrow, and it also can come to my family and my home. in the besieged city of mariupol, thousands have been trapped for weeks. there's no power and medicine,

food and water are hard to find. this satellite image shows hundreds of people queueing outside a supermarket. stranded and cut off, getting hold of food has been tough. translation: we are dog poor, standing by the fire, homeless. i how long is it going to take? we have nowhere to take a shower, we're drinking water from god knows where. the ukrainian government has now sent 45 evacuation buses to mariupol. today russia says it will briefly ceasefire there so people can finally leave but that promise has been made before and broken. anna foster, bbc news, lviv. a reminder of that latest lane, russia has said it has barred eu's top leadership from entering the country in response to what it described as anti—russian policies. now,

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