this is bbc news, our top stories... western governments reject an ultimatum set by president putin for payments for russian gas to be made in roubles. translation: nobody sells us free of charge anything, - and we are not going to do charity either. all the existing contracts will be suspended. president biden tries to combat rising fuel prices at the pump — freeing up millions of gallons of crude oil. in ukraine, new attempts are made to deliver aid to thousands in mariupol after weeks of russian bombardment. the war�*s prompted many western nations to reassess their defence commitments — we'll analyse the debate in europe. and the qatar world cup begins to loom large — but there's still scrutiny over human rights.

western governments have rejected an ultimatum from president putin for payments for russian gas supplies to be made in roubles from friday. germany, france and austria have all described moscow's demand as blackmail. mr putin's ultimatum is an attempt to boost the russian currency — which has been hit by sanctions following the invasion of ukraine. our russia editor, steve rosenberg, reports from moscow. it's where vladimir putin likes to be — centre stage. and from the kremlin leader today, a threat to cut gas supplies to what he called unfriendly nations if they don't pay in roubles. translation: the financial| system of western countries is being used as a weapon. western companies refused to fulfil contracts

with russian banks. assets in dollars and euros are frozen so it makes no sense to use the currencies of these countries. europe relies heavily on russian gas. the demand for payment in roubles, not foreign currency, may be designed to make putin look strong at home. in europe, they will be hoping energy supplies won't be interrupted. the west claims mr putin is taking decisions based on inaccurate information, but one of his supporters told me this. translation: i think putin has the most accurate information | from different sources, including from the intelligence services. he is probably the most well—informed person in russia. the kremlin insists the west is misreading putin. president putin's spokesman said the pentagon and the us state department simply don't understand what goes on in the kremlin.

they don't understand president putin. and that was worrying, he said, because total misunderstanding can lead to wrong decisions and bad consequences. the kremlin continues to claim that attacking ukraine was the right decision. many russians agree. but not everyone. lyudmila's son, sergei, is a police officer. theirfamily is originally from ukraine. a few days ago, sergei was arrested and charged under a new law, with spreading fake news about the russian army. he is suspected of criticising the russian offensive on the telephone. translation: this| is a very heavy blow for me, for the family, the little children. suddenly, their dad just disappeared. he never went to protests. he has no social media. hejust spoke to friends on the phone. i can't rule out that he said

something like, "war is bad, people are dying, homes are being destroyed and that's bad." ludmila still can't believe this is happening to herfamily. and she is still struggling to understand why. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. us president biden has formally announced his plan to release one million barrels of crude oil each day for the next six months, from the us strategic petroleum reserve. it's the largest such release in the history of america's stockpiles. global energy prices have skyrocketed since russia's invasion of ukraine, and mr biden says his actions — along with international cooperation — will help bring those under control. i've co—ordinated this release with allies around the world, already, we have commitments from other countries to release tens of millions of additional barrels coming into the market. together, our combined efforts will supply well over

a million barrels a day. nations coming together to deny putin the ability to weaponise his energy resources against american families and families and democracies around the world. well, earlier i spoke to ellen wald, who is an energy consultant and author and senior fellow at the atlantic council's global energy center. i asked for her thoughts on the split between the west and russia energy policy. well, i definitely think that it is...that this was not out of the cards. i think that this is something that western countries did need to be prepared for and aware of. yes, they do believe that they have a contract, but putin also believes that he had a contract, too, and that their financial sanctions are kind of probably invalidating it. so, really, the issue is kind of who's going to blink first? will they decide that the gas is more important to them, or will they decide that, hey, we're going to take this chance and not pay for the gas in roubles and see what putin does? at a certain level you have to remember that, yes,

the european countries need his gas, but he also has gas he needs to sell. and so that gas can't all automatically be re—routed, say, to china in the blink of an eye. so it really is an issue of which side is going to blink first. you know, i was talking there aboutjoe biden also talking about releasing one million barrels of crude oil each day, but i think for our viewers, it's very... what does that mean? what does that mean to the average american? does that really change things for them on a day—to—day basis? well, that's a really good point, because one of the things you have to remember is that crude oil can be released into the system, but it has to be purchased by refineries and then refined into the products that we're using — like gasoline, plastics, jet fuel, etc. so it's not exactly like it's

an immediate fix, and it's also not totally an issue here of supply and demand, because it's not as if the united states is experiencing a shortage of any of these products or a shortage of crude oil. that's what the spr is really intended for. it's intended to relieve short—term shortages — so, say, for example, during the gulf war, when kuwaiti oil and iraqi oil was off the market, the spr helped relieve these shortages. same if there's, say, a hurricane that takes out production in an area, the spr can be utilised to relieve shortages. the idea that it can be utilised to relieve high prices is a lot trickier because the high prices aren't necessarily being caused by a lack of supply, particularly in the united states — it's a global pricing issue that is being acted upon by geopolitical forces, speculative trading, and so it's really not clear whether this spr release will really do much to relieve

high gasoline prices in a systemic way. yes, the announcement helped bring down the price of oil — today we saw, i think, an $8—a—barrel drop, but that may be largely temporary. three. the red cross says it's preparing to enter the besieged ukrainian city of mariupol with two trucks of humanitarian aid. more than 100,000 people are still thought to be trapped in the city, which has been under heavy russian bombardment for weeks. the ukrainian government is also sending dozens of buses, in a new attempt to get people out. russia has declared a one—day ceasefire, but there is widespread scepticism about russian intentions. nato — the western defence alliance — says that russian units are now being redeployed to fight in the east, in donetsk and luhansk in the donbas region. 0ur correspondent wyre davies is in the town of zaporizhzhia — north—west of mariupol —

and he sent this report. the latest footage from mariupol shows a city in ruins. the municipal theatre, where ukraine says 300 people were killed in a russian airstrike, among the buildings barely left intact. it's against this backdrop that aid agencies and the ukrainian government say there's a humanitarian crisis, tens of thousands of desperate people trapped with little food or water. translation: we are dog poor. standing by the fire, homeless. how long is it going to take? we have nowhere to take a shower. we're drinking water from god knows where. after some success delivering aid to stricken cities elsewhere in this conflict, the red cross is now trying to coordinate an urgent mission to mariupol, but with the port city surrounded by russian troops, it won't be easy. we're waiting basically for the green light from the parties to go in, to be able, one, of course, to facilitate safe passage

for the civilians in the convoy and two, also bring humanitarian aid in. so, here we have two trucks, which are loaded with very much needed supplies — medicine, food, water. in recent days, hundreds of people have been able to flee mariupol, often in bomb damaged cars, through mined roads and russian checkpoints. but with the ukrainian government saying it was sending more than a0 buses to the city, this would be the first mass evacuation of mariupol. the mission to bring relief to the besieged city is by no means guaranteed to happen. previous attempts have failed, and mariupol, a city damaged more than any other in this war, is still a dangerous place. wyre davies, bbc news, zaporizhzhia. one of the clear consequences of the conflict in ukraine is the reassessment of the defence needs

of western countries. the military invasion has provoked a comprehensive reappraisal within nato — the defence alliance led by the usa. in the eu, it is seen by its founders as a guarantor of peace in europe. katya adler — our europe editor — has been investigating how the debate is shaping up. it's been a brutal wake—up call. russia's assault on ukraine has left all of europe feeling exposed. at the reichstag, it certainly feels like a historical moment. to boost european security, germany is saying goodbye to world war ii sensitivities. translation: germany has woken up with a bang. - the second world war was decades ago. we are now modernising our military. 0ur allies have waited too long to do our bit. save ukraine! protect europe! so, germans say they will fight as well as protest for peace. they know they'd relied too

much on the us for security. germany can't act because we are not in danger yet! they�* re overly dependent on russia too for energy and trade. under pressure, berlin has promised change in the wider eu interest. it's about serenity within europe, and i think it's about when it comes to defence and security policies, but also when it comes to imports, when it comes to energy and independence. there will be no forgetting what putin has done. or what he'll do next. in berlin, there's fear of a new cold war with the iron curtain falling further to the east. this is arguably europe's new berlin wall, this border fence a dividing line between expansionist russia over there and eu and nato member latvia, over here. fire! nato has doubled its presence in latvia since russia invaded

ukraine with an emphasis onjoint training exercises like this one and defence of western territory and way of life. we are living in a new reality. we as forces spent 20 years in afghanistan and iraq. now our main focus is here. how do we defend our freedom and our country? and it's the same thing happening within europe. latvia and its neighbours say they understand the kremlin more than most. they used to be in the soviet union. forget diplomacy, says latvia's prime minister, it's a show of force that counts. if putin is not stopped in ukraine, he will not stop. what about a european army, an eu army? goodidea? as long as we keep nato at the centre, the strengthening the european's military capabilities, this is something that we have been arguing for for years, and it now seems that finally everyone agrees

this needs to be done. vladimir putin has brought large—scale death and destruction back to europe. the eu — a peace project by design — has been shocked out of complacency. action western allies take together now will affect all our safety and security for years to come. katya adler, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news — still to come... lives turned upside down — we'll tell you about the ukrainian orphans who've had to be evacuated twice. the accident that happened here was of the sort that can, at worst, produce a meltdown. in this case, the precautions worked, but they didn't work quite well enough to prevent some old fears about the safety features of these

stations from resurfacing. the republic of ireland has become the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. from today, anyone lighting up in offices, businesses, pubs and restaurants will face a heavy fine. the president was on his way out of the washington hilton hotel, where he had been addressing a trade union conference. the small crowd outside included his assailant. it has become - a symbol of paris. 100 years ago, many parisians| wished it had never been built. the eiffel tower's birthday is- being marked by a re—enactment of the first ascent by gustav eiffeh — this is bbc world news, the latest headlines... western governments reject an ultimatum set by president putin for payments for russian gas to be made in roubles.

his american counterpart tries to combat rising fuel prices at the pump by freeing up millions of barrels of crude oil. some 95% of people do not have enough to eat. nine million people are at risk of famine. and a million severely malnourished children are on the verge of death, without immediate action. that is how the un has described the humanitarian situation in afghanistan. un secretary general antonio guterres said afghans were selling their children — and even their own organs — to ward off hunger. at a pledging conference in geneva, the un had asked for $4.4 billion in international aid. in the end, only 2.4 billion — just over half of that — was pledged. achim steiner is the administor with the un achim steiner is the administrator with the un development programme — he told us what he made of the shortfall. there is no question that the war in ukraine has obviously affected the priorities, the focus of

many countries, and it is also very understandable that humanitarian suffering that we have seen over the last few weeks emanating from the ukraine, with almost 10 million people displaced injust four weeks inside the country, outside the country, the enormous amount of destruction. these are extremely painful moments, but the harsh truth is we live in a world where there are multiple crisis and multiple wars. the question is is the world in 2022 not capable of mobilising the resources that sound like a lot of money, billions, but we just invested trillions into the wealthiest countries to get to the pandemic. we have the resources, even some oil—producing countries are going to end up making a lot more money as we just heard, with oil market prices going up, but are in fact cutting their international aid. the leadership and authorities in afghanistan have an announcement of the last few days also made it more difficult for the international community to engage. i'm thinking of the reversal

of the decision to allow girls to attend secondary schools. this was a key litmus test of the kind of criteria that would allow the world to engage in afghanistan, that signal obviously was a great setback. achim steiner. let's get some of the day s other news. russia's foreign minister, sergei lavrov, has arrived in india, where he is due to meet indian foreign minister sjaishankar. indian and russian officials are expected to discuss the sale of russian crude oil to india. the indian government is under pressure from other members of the quad grouping, which includes the united states, australia and japan, to take a stronger stand against russia and its invasion of ukraine. the presidents of the european commission and european council, ursula von der leyen and charles michel, will hold virtual talks with chinese leaders on friday. brussels is keen to get assurance from beijing that it will neither supply russia with arms nor help moscow circumvent western sanctions imposed over the invasion of ukraine.

the western half of the chinese city of shanghai has gone into lockdown — the second phase of a plan to curb the spread of covid. the eastern half of the city has been locked down since monday, and will be allowed to gradually emerge from its restrictions. there's been panic—buying and short supplies of some basic necessities. riot police have been deployed near the sri lankan president's house in the capital, colombo, after a large protest against deepening economic crises in the country. angry protesters have pulled down police barriers. this came on as the government began imposing an unprecedented 13—hour country—wide power cuts. the crisis has been caused by depleted foreign exchange reserves. the pakistan prime minister imran khan has refused to resign ahead of a no—confidence vote on sunday. he lost his majority in parliament after one of his allies — the mom party — withdrew their support on wednesday. the no—confidence vote requires a simple majority and — on paper at least — the opposition have 11 more votes than the government.

workers at an amazon warehouse in alabama have rejected unionisation by a narrow — and not quite final — margin, on the same day that workers in new york voted to unionise. 53% of amazon workers in bessemer, alabama, voted against forming a union, but the contest could hinge on 1,416 challenged ballots which will be adjudicated in the coming weeks. last year, workers sided with amazon by a more than 2—to—1 margin against unionising. the state of qatar says it has nothing to apologise for in hosting the men's football world cup. the draw for november's tournament takes place on friday, but the country has been criticised for its human rights record, attitudes towards minorities, as well as workers' conditions. 0ur sports editor dan roan reports from qatar. the first world cup in the

middle east, the first in winter, is looming into view. the flag raising ceremony for the teams that have qualified as the countdown here in doha continues. the world of football in town for the draw, and despite all the controversy the man in charge telling me it feels very real. it the man in charge telling me it feels very real.— feels very real. it brings it home is — feels very real. it brings it home is now _ feels very real. it brings it home is now for _ feels very real. it brings it home is now for the - feels very real. it brings it home is now for the next | feels very real. it brings it i home is now for the next six months i think it is just a matter of preparing and ready to welcome the world of. 1truiith to welcome the world of. with all ei . ht to welcome the world of. with all eight stadium _ to welcome the world of. with all eight stadium within - to welcome the world of. with all eight stadium within a - to welcome the world of. with all eight stadium within a 35 mile radius, fans will be able to attend more than one match a day. named after the number of shipping containers used in its construction, stadium 974 is the world's first transportable football arena, able to be dismantled and reused somewhere else in the future. its design meant fewer building materials were used, but it's the controversy over the human cost of all the development here at qatar in recent years that continues to hang over this tournament. despite reforms,

concerns persist over the treatment of labourers, especially on wider infrastructure projects. a football tournament in doha this week involving migrant workers, one telling me more still needs to be done. £311" still needs to be done. our problem — still needs to be done. our problem is _ still needs to be done. our problem is our _ still needs to be done.

labour farms and other aspects, as well, that the world cup will allow to accelerate and develop that there is always more work to be done. we have heard gareth _ more work to be done. we have heard gareth southgate - more work to be done. we have heard gareth southgate refer. more work to be done. we have heard gareth southgate refer to the fact that his concern that film fans will not feel comfortable coming here. we have always _ comfortable coming here. - have always said everyone is welcome and we will ensure that there is a welcoming environment, everyone will come, feel safe. we environment, everyone will come, feel safe.— environment, everyone will come, feel safe. we teams are set to lead _ come, feel safe. we teams are set to lead their _ come, feel safe. we teams are set to lead their fate, - come, feel safe. we teams are set to lead their fate, the - set to lead their fate, the focus is now likely to shift towards the football. the scrutiny of the field, however, is unlikely to fade. for more than a month now the war in ukraine has caused chaos, devastation and confusion. millions of people have been forced to leave their homes — among them an unknown number of children. the bbc�*s tim allman reports on one group of youngsters whose world has been turned upside down — twice. life has already been cruel enough to these children.

abandoned or bereaved, orphans who are now having to deal with the consequences of war. but, for many, their thoughts are elsewhere. "i'm not worried about myself," says karina, "i'm just worried about my loved ones who stayed behind. i'm very worried about them." when the war began the children lived in an orphanage in the donetsk region close to the border with russia. 0n the second day of the invasion, they were evacuated to a town north—west of the capital kyiv. but that also proved to be too dangerous and soon they were on the move again, this time in a region to the far west of ukraine. translation: right now, we are in a safe place. - i feel like we are back in peacetime, like - nothing has happened. i don't discuss . what's going on. let it remain beyond these walls, and here is a smalll circle of childhood. no—one knows how long

the fighting will last or how long these children will have to remain here. for now, they can play, as if the war isn't happening at all. tim allman, bbc news. the russian invasion of ukraine forced millions of people to leave their houses and belongings behind — and for many that included their pets. but now — for one abandoned animal at least — a new home has been found. this is bavaria — a schnauzer who was discovered by ukrainian soldiers in a village in the kyiv region a few days ago. bavaria has been taken in by a volunteer called 0lga. a relatively happy ending for everyone — except 0lga's cat kasus. he's not too keen on his new housemate, and has taken to hiding on top of the fridge. quite a sweet story there. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @bbcnuala.

iam also i am also on instagram. thank you so much for watching bbc world news. hello. spring weather can often be erratic, and we've certainly seen that play out during the past few days. march, for a good part of the time, was dry and sunny. in fact, scotland and northern ireland, according to the met office, provisionally had the sunniest march on record. it was only on sunday we saw conditions like this in aberdeenshire. the warmest parts of the country 19 degrees. fast forward to thursday afternoon, and temperatures at times only 2 celsius as the snow showers came down fairly heavy. and they are continuing as we go into friday as well. the run of north—northeasterly winds all the way from the arctic continue. strongest towards the southeast as we start friday, linked into this area of low pressure developing across europe. and it's here we could see a further covering of snow. high pressure trying to build in, and with showers fading for most into the morning, we will see a widespread frost, and across eastern areas, icy

conditions to begin the day. for most of you, actually a sunny start to friday. the sleet and snow showers across eastern areas continue, particularly towards that southeast corner, and they will develop a bit more widely as we go through the day. but turning more to rain and sleet rather than pure snow. also at the same time, clouding over through the morning for the highlands and islands, that cloud will bring rain and hill snow across parts of scotland and eventually into northern ireland later in the day. temperatures still on the cold side, 6—10 degrees, feeling coldest towards the southeast corner, especially with the strongest of the winds. but improving conditions for the afternoon compared with the morning, more in the way of dry weather. now, as we go into the night, friday night into saturday, we will see outbreaks of rain and hill snow spread its way southwards into wales. that should keep the temperatures just above freezing away from the hills and mountains, but elsewhere, another very cold night with a widespread frost, and the risk of ice to start the weekend. but for many, actually quite a bright day. there will be a few showers close to the east, the main showers will be across wales, southwest england, a little bit wintry over the hills. cloud will bubble up through the day to produce

occasional slow—moving showers, but the vast majority will spend either the whole or the bulk of the day dry. temperature up a little bit and given the lighter winds and that strong sunshine overhead, it shouldn't feel too bad out there, especially compared with thursday. into sunday, another widespread frost to begin with, isolated showers developing through the day as cloud builds up, but another batch of thicker cloud, outbreaks of rain, stronger winds pushing towards the northwest of scotland, and they will bring slightly milder weather as we go into next week. that's how it's looking. i will see you again soon.

this is bbc news — the headlines. western governments have rejected an ultimatum set by president vladimir putin for payments for russian natural gas supplies to be made in roubles from friday. mr putin had said the switch was necessary because the western financial system was being "used as a weapon" against the russian federation. president biden has ordered the largest ever release of oil from the united states' strategic reserve — to help reduce international price rises caused by the russian invasion of ukraine. mr biden said 1 million barrels of oil would be released every day for the next six months. the red cross says it's preparing to enter the besieged ukrainian city of mariupol with two trucks of humanitarian aid. more than a hundred—thousand peole are still thought to be trapped in the city. the ukrainian government is also sending dozens of buses to try and bring people out. now on bbc news — hardtalk.