welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines — the ukraine war — we report on the scenes of devastation in borodyanka near the capital kyiv after it was targeted by russian missiles. under the laws of war, killing civilians and wanton destruction are both crimes unless, it can somehow be proved that that was a military target. in the town of bucha, also near kyiv, satellite images show streets littered with bodies. president zelensky says russia is committing war crimes. at the united nations, president zelensky alleges the worst war crimes since world war ii have been committed. russia denies it.

translation: the massacre in our city of bucha is only i one, unfortunately only one of many examples of what the occupiers have been doing on our land. translation: during the time that the town was under - the control of russian armed forces, not a single - civilian suffered from any kind of violence. | live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it's newsday. welcome to bbc news broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. it's 7am in the morning in singapore and 2am in the morning in ukraine, where president volodymyr zelensky has accused russia of committing the most terrible war crimes since the second world war. in an address to the un, he accused vladimir putin's forces of creating "mass starvation" and shooting and raping civilians.

it comes as images emerge from the town of bucha after the russians retreat, showing the bodies of civilians lying in the streets. russia says the images shown are staged and fake. however, ukraine's leader says the numbers killed in towns and villages like borodyanka could be even higher. our correspondentjeremy bowen has just visited there. this is his report. a warning — you may find it distressing. the destruction in the centre of borodyanka is the worst for its size i've seen in any of the towns around kyiv, including much fought—over irpin and bucha. the worst killing in borodyanka might have come when these flats were destroyed. a line of them stood here. you can see the gaps. after you. next door to the rubble, dmytro inspected his shop. this is your shop?

medical, pharmacy, it's a pharmacy, yeah? destroyed, everything's gone. we went upstairs where his wife svitlana was trying to clean up his mother's flat. their family is safe, but not their friends in the destroyed building nextdoor. translation: they were all our neighbours. - shortly after the air strike, people nearby heard some voices shouting for help. russian soldiers stopped them digging. they threatened to shoot if they tried. dmytro left 30 others in the cellar before the strike. when he went back in the morning, it was full of rubble. all 30 are missing. you're lucky to be alive, aren't you? "yes," he said, "my wife, mother and daughter were praying for me." this is a civilian block of flats. now, only a ballistic missile or an air strike can do

this sort of damage. under the laws of war, killing civilians and wanton destruction are both crimes unless it can somehow be proved that that was a military target. close by, local people were getting some food organised by their priest, who said he'd seen the russians shooting civilians. you saw civilians being killed by a russian sniper? translation: it was the 2nd of march near the petrol station. i we were driving along, followed by two civilian cars. theyjust shot them. it was an execution. most people here left during the russian occupation. svitlana said coming back made her empty and scared. tell us what the town was like before. eventually she said it was very nice, very green. hundreds of people could

be lying dead under the rubble, say the police. once the heavy lifting gear arrives, they'll know more. jeremy bowen, bbc news, borodyanka. just 25 kilometres from borodyanka, in the town of bucha, ukrainian human rights officials say a mass grave near a church may contain as many as 300 bodies. yogita limaye has this report. destruction and death are expected during a conflict. but what's happened in bucha violates the rules of war and of humanity. irina abramova lived peacefully here with her husband until 5th of march. then a russian tank pulled up outside. their home was shelled.

as it was burning, russian soldiers shouted, calling the couple outside. translation: they wanted | to know where the nazis are. they said we have an evil government with nazis in it and we should be punished for it. i said, "we're not guilty. we're just humans. " minutes later, her husband 0leg, a ao—year—old welder, was shot in the head. russia saying it's not killed civilians deliberately in ukraine. what do you want to say about that? translation: my husband wasn't a soldier. _ he'd never held a gun. he was a peaceful man. they took him from our home in his slippers, asked him to take his shirt off, made him kneel on the ground and killed him.

she wears 0leg's wedding band around her neck. she says it's all she has left of him now, along with the shirt and sweater he was wearing the day he died. translation: | want. the whole world to know that the russians are killers. they�* re not human. they're killing women, children, civilians. she shows us the spot outside their home where 0leg was killed, bloodstains still visible where his body lay for weeks. translation: he was - the best man in the world. he was kind and caring. he was the love of my life. i could give anything to bring him back.

the more you talk to people in bucha, the more you learn of the terror that this town lived through. a local resident told us that a woman riding a bicycle was shot on this street. in a house down this road, a man was trapped in his basement for weeks without much food. he dared not go anywhere because there was a russian tank standing outside. in the backyard of a church in bucha, the bodies of people who died here continue to pile up in a shallow trench. ukrainian and russian soldiers and ordinary people together in a single grave. more than 300 civilians have been killed here. only a few have so far had the dignity of a proper burial. yogita limaye, bbc news, bucha. to the united nations now, and in president zelensky�*s speech to delegates this

afternoon, he not only accused moscow of war crimes, but he said the un was proving ineffective because russia is abusing its veto on the security council. and that, he said, was preventing international action. here's our north america editor sarah smith. horrific images of dead civilians lying in the streets of bucha shocked the world, but russia claims the scenes have been staged. analysis of satellite imagery taken in mid—march shows bodies lying in the precise positions corpses were later found, proving they were killed when russian forces controlled the area. ukrainian president zelensky told the un security council the most terrible war crimes since world war ii are being committed in ukraine, saying what's been revealed in bucha is also happening elsewhere. translation: the massacre in our city of bucha is only i one, unfortunately only one of many examples of what the occupiers have

been doing on our land for the past 41 days. there are many more cities, similar places, where the world has yet to learn the full truth. he lambasted the security council for failing to guarantee the security of ukraine and showed an extremely graphic video of dead civilians in several ukrainian towns which visibly shocked the council. we are appalled by what we have seen and reiterate our solidarity with ukraine. the us wants russia to be removed from the un human rights council in response to human rights abuses in ukraine. reports indicate that russian federal security agents - are confiscating passports and ids, taking away celll phones and separating - families from one another. i do not need to spell out - what these so—called filtration camps are reminiscent of. it's chilling.

russia denies that its forces have killed civilians, calling the pictures of dead bodies fake news. translation: during the time that the town was under - the control of russian armed forces, not a single civilian suffered from any kind of violence. that impassioned plea from president zelensky to the un, along with harrowing accounts coming out of ukraine, are piling pressure on world leaders to respond. further sanctions are expected to be announced tomorrow, and the us has committed to hold the russian leadership accountable for war crimes, but with no explanation as to how or when that might happen. the un needs to act immediately, president zelensky demanded. if it can't do anything beyond talking about the war in ukraine, he told them, then it might as well close down. sarah smith, bbc news, washington. the white house has given more details of new sanctions

it will impose against russia on wednesday. it said the us, european union and the g7 group of the most industrialised nations had worked together on the package. this will include a ban on all new investment in russia and increase sanctions on financial institutions and state owned enterprises in russia and sank on russian officials and others. these measures will degrade key instruments of russian state power and impose a key in the economic forum in russia and hold accountable depression that follows and supports the war. this is going to be done in coordination with others, and the steps as just noted obviously that endeavours of russian officials and other stakeholder process and financial institutions. well, as the white house gets

those sanctions prepared and the world digests the images from bucha, in russia, they're being used to portray a different message. 0ur russia editor steve rosenberg is in moscow. russian tv has been showing graphic video from bucha of bodies scattered along a road, but because the kremlin controls completely television here, it controls the messaging. and it's been using these images to paint a very different picture for the russian public. so, for example, when i watched the main political talk show today on russian state tv, it did run the bucha pictures, but with the word "fake" in big red letters plastered across the screen to try and convince the viewers that these claims of russian war crimes were simply an invention. in the same way that the kremlin uses television to try to persuade russians that there is no war going on in ukraine, it's simply a special military operation, and that russia is not the aggressor, it's acting in self—defence. now, do russians have access to alternative views, to alternative

sources of information? well, that's becoming harder and harder, because virtually all independent russian news sources, news outlets now have either been shut down or blocked. it is the kremlin that dominates the information space in russia today. as we have been saying, russian forces have been withdrawing from areas near the capital as they prepare to focus efforts on the east of ukraine. 0ur security correspondent frank gardner assesses the current military strategy. the overall picture of the war in ukraine has changed in the last week, although russian forces, seen here in red, are still largely around the edges of ukraine. the ukrainians have been counterattacking, and they're shown in green. but the new phase of this war is focusing on the east of the country, the area known as the donbas, because that's where most of the fighting is now. the bulk of ukraine's regular

army is dug in trying to stop russia and its pro—kremlin allies from seizing the whole region and bringing it under moscow's control. there's a lot of heavy industry in the donbas, so there is some concern internationally that the fighting could trigger the release of toxic chemicals. it's a different picture in the north, in the towns around kyiv, where the russian forces have been withdrawing. they're almost certainly going to be used to reinforce russia's efforts in the donbas. but they left behind them scenes of devastation and evidence of possible war crimes, which russia denies. in the south, the city of mariupol is now largely in russian hands, but that's come at a terrible cost, with most of the city in ruins. over to the west, the black sea port of 0desa has been bracing for a russian amphibious attack that has yet to materialise. but russian missiles had been hitting strategic

targets like this refinery, so ukraine could soon be running critically low on fuel. all of this poses a dilemma for the west, because the challenge for nato is to keep providing powerful enough weapons for ukraine to defend itself against this russian invasion, but without them being so powerful that it provokes moscow into retaliation, escalation and a wider european war. and as always, you can always find more on this story on our website, the latest updates from the teams on the ground and our correspondents in the field, including the latest on how europe has responded to the atrocities in bucha. that's on bbc.com/news or simply download the bbc news app.

you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme, we look at accusations that rape and sexual violence are among the war crimes being committed in ukraine. 25 years of hatred and rage as theyjump up on the statue. this funeral became a massive demonstration of black power, of power to influence. today is about the promise of a bright future, a day when we hope a line can be drawn under the bloody past. i think that picasso's i works were beautiful,

they were intelligent, and it's a sad loss - to everybody who loves art. this is newsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. 0ur headlines — scenes of devastation in borodyanka in ukraine after it was targeted by russian missiles. at the united nations, president zelensky alleges the worst war crimes since world war ii have been committed. russia denies it. as russian troops withdraw from areas of ukraine, the scale of violence and rape they have inflicted on women and girls is emerging. an international studyjust published estimates that around 70% of women and children refugees can experience sexual violence, but because the war in ukraine is still ongoing,

ukrainian testimonies are not yet included. the theme of violence and rape used as a weapon in war is sadly common to all conflicts. associate professor cathy vaughan from the university of melbourne is one of the authors of the report. she spoke about the challenges of gathering data. it's very difficult to get quantitative data on the prevalence of violence against women who are fleeing a conflict because for number of reasons. it's very difficult to record instances of violence along the way that happen, and then when women arrive in a place of safety or refuge or even temporary transit, it's a painful thing to talk about. and we know that the level of violence against women is underreported globally, and it certainly is in this instance where women arrive in a place of safety and they just want to get their kids to school and they want to have a roof over their head, and it's not necessarily their first priority to disclose the awful things that have happened

to them along the way. indeed. professor, just in terms of the kinds of violence and the testimonies that you've collected, what kinds of violence did women experience? so, women reported violence at each stage of the fight and leaving conflict settings or forced migrant situations. sometimes women, that's why they left, so women talked about forced marriage. the data that we were collecting was largely with women who were fleeing the syrian conflict at that time, so we collected data from late 2018 to 2021, so a lot of our participants were from syria and iraq and some from sub—saharan africa. and women were talking about leaving a conflict because of violence, leaving their homes violence in conflict. so, that's a lot of what's been discussed at the moment in relation to ukraine

is the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war, which of course is a war crime, but incredibly common in conflict situations. then women also talked about violence along the way, and that could be from border guards, it could be in reception centres, it could be from host communities or other refugees. and of course all along thejourney, including to resettlement and when people arrived to countries of refuge, women were experiencing partner violence as well. and in very stressful, distressing circumstances, we know that the level of partner violence can go up, and so women had a range of people who were using violence against them along the way. yeah, professor, i know the testimonies from ukraine have not been collected in this report yet, but we've already heard from our correspondence and teams on the ground these reports are beginning to emerge. how widespread do you think the issue of sexual violence and rape could be in ukraine? certainly the accounts that are coming out of ukraine

are quite distressing in relation to women's stories of sexual violence. and of course sexual violence can also be used against men and people with diverse sexual orientation and gender identity in conflict settings as well. but certainly the majority of victims that we hear about are women. and it does sound like this has been used quite widely in a number of the settings. and i also worry about women who are on the move because they are very vulnerable at that time, whether it's from combatants, from people who opportunistically use sexual violence against them. so, i think the likelihood is that we will hear increasing accounts of sexual violence over this period, as we hear from other conflicts around the world, whether it's, you know, the tigray region in ethiopia or obviously violence against women in afghanistan was pre—existing. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines.

the international rescue committee has said that africa is facing its worst food crisis in a decade. the number of people in need of emergency assistance has quadrupled in the past seven years. islamist violence and climate change in the sahel region have led to poorer harvests, and the war in ukraine is making things worse as many african countries import the majority of their grain. the uk, us and australia have agreed to work together to research hypersonic weapons and ways to counter them. hypersonic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound, were reportedly used for the first time in combat by russia in ukraine last month. now to the crisis in sri lanka, where the president has lifted the state of emergency. the government there has been rocked by ongoing protests against food and fuel shortages. sri lanka is seeing widespread unrest caused by power cuts and shortages because of an economic and foreign exchange crisis. rajini vaidya nathan reports.

well, it's been another day of protests across sri lanka, and we're here in colombo in independence square. and as you can see, there's a large crowd that's been gathering here. many of them are calling for president gotabaya rajapaksa to leave office. some of them have been chanting things like saying, "go to the moon, president rajapaksa." huge pressure on the president, but he remains in office. now, that's despite a day of intense politics. at parliament today, more than a0 mps quit his coalition government, and the new finance minister left his role after less than 2a hours in the job. now, away from the political, the personal suffering continues. people still say they're struggling to get hold of cooking gas and petrol for their cars. and i was talking to two labourers earlier who say that even the cost of a basic bag of rice has now become prohibitively expensive. the country is still experiencing regular

power cuts. the power in this area also went off recently as well. itjust gives you an idea of the suffering, and people here are asking even if the government eventually falls, which at the moment doesn't like it's happening anytime soon, what will be the solution in this deepening crisis and how will sri lankans have a way forward? and finally, a sumatran rhino has successfully given birth in an indonesian sanctuary after suffering eight miscarriages in the last 17 years. these pictures capture the rare moment the female baby calf was born to mum rosa in way kambas national park on thursday. officials say both mother and calf are doing well. rosa was brought in for a breeding programme at the sanctuary in 2005 with the hope of saving the species. the sumatran rhino is on the brink of extinction because of poaching and climate change. the wwf estimates fewer than 80 of the species remain in the world.

that's all for now. stay with bbc news. hello. the weather looked very different between the top and tail of the uk on tuesday. across england and wales, the sun came out for many. and in the sunshine, temperatures got up into the low to mid teens. this was the isle of wight tuesday afternoon. here we are, though, in aberdeenshire tuesday afternoon, a very different picture — some fresh snowfall, temperatures barely scratching above freezing. arctic air to the north of the uk. to the south, atlantic air. the two mixing out towards the west, with this occlusion turning back behind an area of low pressure. slightly cooler air flooding in to all parts of the uk on wednesday. relatively milder air, though, just pushing into the far north of scotland. but that big area of low pressure does mean, for all areas, it's going to be windy and there will be some bands of punchy showers marching through. but we've lost the snow

from northern scotland, the cold air really confined to the northern isles, but mostly rain that we'll be seeing here. further south, some good spells of sunshine between the showers, but when the showers push through, they possibly could be accompanied by some hail, thunder and lightning. temperatures down a couple of degrees on tuesday. it was a very mild start to the week. wednesday into thursday, we start to pull colder air in, though, to the north of our area of low pressure once again. and through wednesday evening, but particularly overnight into thursday, the colder air mixes in with our weather fronts. and it looks like we could see some significant snow for northern scotland once again. a risk of ice here for first thing thursday, certainly, and potentially that wintry weather affecting the central belt of scotland through the morning rush hour. we will see the showers thinning out as they sink south through the course of the day, but still the chance of a wintry element across the pennines into thursday afternoon. sunshine for many come thursday afternoon, but it will feel chillier, especially in contrast to the start of the week.

and then cold air right the way across the uk for friday. i think there will be quite a bit of sunshine, some wintry showers in the north and east. biggest question mark — what this area of low pressure deepening to the south of the uk will do. at the moment, it looks like it will slide in to the continent, bringing some very wet and windy weather to northern france. but it also looks like it could bring some very wet weather to the south coast of the uk and be accompanied by strong winds. if it pushes a little further north, there's just the question about whether it will bring something more wintry. stay tuned.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main new stories for you at the top of the hour, as newsday continues straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. vladimir putin still calls his invasion of ukraine a special military operation. the hollowness of that phrase has been exposed as horrifying evidence has emerged from towns and villages around kyiv, recently vacated by russian forces. hundreds of civilian corpses have been found, some bound

and shot in the head.