intensify attacks around the capital the first asylum seekers could be flown from the uk to rwanda in weeks, according to the british government. the scheme aims to deter people crossing the english channel, but critics say it is inhumane more than 340 people are now known to have died in the south african province of kwazulu—natal, in the worst flooding there in decades. the duke and duchess of sussex met the queen yesterday afterflying into the uk. the couple stopped at windsor on their way to the netherlands, for the invictus games. our royal correspondent sarah campbell told us more about their brief visit. it was certainly a flying visit. they were in and out of the country before the media got wind of it. it appears they flew in on wednesday evening, stayed overnight at the cottage in the grounds of windsor castle and made

their way sometime yesterday to windsor castle itself and had a meeting with the queen which was confirmed by their spokespeople later in the evening. this is the first time the couple together have been in the country since 2020. meghan has not been back in the uk since 2020, harry was back for the unveiling of the statue of diana and the funeral of prince philip back in april last year, almost exactly one year ago. there has been a lot of water under the bridge since they left, the oprah winfrey interview, recently ongoing, this high court claim against the home office brought by prince harry talking about protection, it was said in court he does not feel it is safe in the uk to bring his family across. clearly they felt that a stop—off on the way to the hague to the invictus games was something they could fit into their schedule and that's what happened yesterday.

now on bbc news, stephanie hegarty finds relief and heartbreak in equal measure at ukraine's border, as families separated from the country and the people they love, start to come to terms with their new lives as refugees. this programme contains images some viewers may find upsetting. air raid siren wails explosion it's been a relentless assault on ordinary lives. this is the neighbour, and that's where the bomb, or whatever it was. since the start of the war in ukraine, thousands of people have been killed... ..and millions have been forced to leave their homes, saying goodbye to everything they know.

they're from kyiv? yeah, it's all the stuff they brought with them. i'm travelling to northern romania, to the small border town of siret, where relief and heartbreak come in waves... hey! ..to meet the ukrainian families separated by this war... itjust dawned on me that the possibility of me losing her, it's not zero, it's possible. ..and to find out how they're coming to terms with their new lives as refugees. they're here, they're waiting. kettle whistles this is the video of the street

parallel to my parents�*. just a few weeks ago, galya was an estate agent, but she's just escaped ukraine with her daughters. lesia, hersister, came from london to meet them, and they're all staying in the small flat that they're renting, close to the border in romania. but their mum and dad stayed behind in their hometown, bucha. what was it like, looking at all this news coming in of your hometown? it's horrible. like, my school is gone. like, if, like, most of the places that i've known, they've bombed. my side of where i grew up, it's mostly gone. wow. yeah. it's early—march, and bucha has been under siege for days. this quiet, leafy suburb is one of the last lines of defence,

as ukraine pushes russian forces away from kyiv. russia is moving in to take the town, and it's impossible to even imagine the extent of the horror that will unfold here. this is the neighbour. that's his house, and that's where the bomb, or whatever it was. his house is here, my parents were here, and the bomb landed in the middle. and the entrance to the cellar was on this side. they were both in there. we didn't know what was happening with them. so i watched this video and i was like, i couldn't even finish it. i was like trying to call them, but there was no reply. last they heard, their parents were still hiding in the cellar of galya's house. the same place that galya hid with her daughters before they ran.

on facebook, a lot of people are saying, "can you please pick up my immobile mum or grandmother?", or, "there's children in the basement." you don't know who's alive and who isn't. and there's people on the street,

just dead people on the street. finally, they got a phone call. it was their mum and dad. they're alive, and forced to accept that it's time to leave bucha. theyjoin hundreds of people trying to leave the suburbs of kyiv. a pause in intense fighting has been agreed... explosion ..but it's still not safe. travelling through this border region, we find every hotel and every guest house full of people who've left ukraine, and some who are heading in the other direction. in the town of gura humorului, i meet denys. he's from mykolaiv and, this morning, he woke up to hear that this had happened...

explosions just yesterday night, my city was under attack. my family, my wife, and i have two daughters, 15 years old and ten years old... ok. ..so they're waiting for me. it's mid—march, and russian forces are pushing along the south coast of ukraine. they want to capture the port city of 0desa, on the black sea, and mykolaiv stands in the way. denys was working as an engineer in the netherlands when the war started. he wants to drive this van over the border to deliver supplies and to rescue his family. what are you bringing? 0il, food, medicine, er, the most expensive of medicine. how do you feel about

seeing your daughters? i miss them. it's... and i worry, and... you'll see them soon. yeah, i will see them soon. from the moment i go across the border, i have not any plans. i cannot make any plans, actually, because i don't know how it will go. it's absolutely unpredictable. sirens wail if you go to ukraine, you can pick up your family, but you can't come out. yes, yes. i will bring them to the border. later on, my friend, peter, he will cross the border, pick them up and bring to the european union. and i have to stay, so it's a one—way ticket for me. but anyway, i'm ready. but for now, he's stuck here in romania, waiting for a piece of paperwork, so that the van can cross the border. i think it's very difficult. i'm reading the news and, from this, ifeel worse and worse.

but anyway, we cannot give up. it must be terrifying, though, for you. i cannot... i cannot even explain what i feel now. putin's war has created an exodus from ukraine. since the beginning of the invasion, more than four million people have left. and by mid—march, thousands are crossing into romania every day, at this border, in the tiny town of siret. they're met with a wall of kindness from the romanian emergency services. . . ..and from hundreds of volunteers, like katya. katya is from dnipro, in south—east ukraine. her mum still lives there.

they're from kyiv. yeah, it's all the stuff they brought with them. katya lives in the uk, but the day the war broke out, she came here, with her partner, petro. hands on deck now. i'm looking forward to some physical work! yeah. to warm up, yeah. they're organising the shipment of aid, especially medicine, into dnipro. 0n the other side, katya's mum is also helping out. look, there's a sign there, "welcome to ukraine". she speaks in ukrainian uh, uh, uh! hey! natasha, my mum.

natasha, hi. i am natasha. this morning has been especially difficult. katya woke up to hear that dnipro was attacked — for the first time. explosion she says she has no time to hide. katya's afraid she'll lose contact with her mum. she's been trying to convince her to leave. when do you think you'll be

ready to leave dnipro? she doesn't want to. she loves her city. nice to meet you. stay safe, please. so, have you accepted the fact your mum's going to... not going to leave, or are you going to keep trying? itjust dawned on me that the possibility of me losing her, it's not zero, it's possible. before, it was, you know, an irrationalfear. now, it's a rationalfear.

i had a little outburst last night and somehow, though, this flow of warm feelings from the childhood, remembering how she's taken care of me on when i'm little, and ijust lost it for a few minutes. lesia and galya have just heard from their mum and dad. so, they're already on this side of the border, just waiting for us. hmm... still 20 minutes. but one person is not with them. she's saying that she doesn't miss her grandparents any more, she misses her dad now, because now she knows that her grandparents are coming. yep. it's hard to explain to kids as well that god knows when they're

going to see their dad. can you do a facetime call? yeah, but it's not the same, is it? no, not really. because of ukraine's martial law and his work helping with evacuations, galya's husband can't leave. they're somewhere in the building, in some sort of building, yeah, they said they're somewhere in the building, but i haven't seen a building there.

how was the journey, long? she translates good. all good. they got lucky. and here, only 15 minutes, and they were through. two borders in 15 minutes. what was it like leaving home? she translates crazy. don't ask. yeah. for now, you can't even explain

it, but you have to... a0 years building and building and, in one minute, it's all gone. because my dad actually built the house that we lived in and the house that my sister lived in. so, yeah. yeah. after almost two weeks sleeping underground, petro and lyudmila can finally get a warm shower and a good night's sleep. my mum's like, i've been in this hat for ten days, without taking it off! oh! nastya's like, "when we are home, i will make you warm." but there are thousands of families still trapped by fighting in ukraine.

we're just waiting for denys. he was supposed to be crossing into ukraine in the van, but they still haven't got the paperwork, and things are getting so bad in mykolaiv, where his family are, he's going to cross on foot and just try and get there however he can. denys has no idea what to expect on the other side. but there's some good news.

his wife and daughters have escaped from mykolaiv. not the best case, not the best situation when i want to see my country. ok.

what's your plan? go home. go home? what's the latest with your wife and children? i'm waiting, they have to cross the border to moldova, now. i'll go. ok. good luck. thank you. bye— bye. can't imagine what must be going through his head right now. minutes after he crosses into ukraine, a message comes through from denys. "i'm home," he says.

we're just heading back in to meet lesia's parents. they've been in romania about a day now and they've had a chance to have a warm shower and a good sleep, so we're just going to catch up with them and find out a bit more about theirjourney. tell us a little bit about the past two weeks, how have they been? so, when did you finally decide to leave?

before he retired, petro was a builder, but he has no idea if he'll return to the home — and the town — that he helped build.

petro and lyudmila have gone to portugal, for now. at the end of march, russian forces were pushed out of bucha. a neighbour told petro that their house is still standing, but it's been ransacked. evidence is emerging of potential war crimes in bucha. civilians have been found dead on the street. galya and her daughters have come to london to stay with lesia. her husband is still in ukraine. katya and petro are back in london and still raising money to buy

medicine to send to ukraine. natasha is still in dnipro. and denys has joined the territorial defence forces, in mykolaiv. his wife and daughters made it safely out of ukraine. hello. the easter long weekend upon us now and actually over the next few days, the weather's not looking too bad at all. we're going to see high pressure largely dominating things. so temperatures are going to be doing well for this time of year. there'll be some sunshine, perhaps some rain around later in the weekend, particularly later easter sunday and on into easter monday as well. but for the here and now, it is high pressure that's sitting out

towards the east of the uk. you can see it here over the next few days. we've got a couple of fronts that are just trying to nudge in from the atlantic, but generally, as they bump into that high pressure tending to fizzle out. so friday, then we've had a bit of mist and murk around some parts of eastern england, eastern scotland, but also through these irish sea coasts. bit of low cloud and murkiness few splashes of rain across northern ireland later on today. most places, though, avoiding any of those rogue showers and staying predominantly dry. temperatures about 12 to 20, possibly as high as 22 degrees in one or two spots. moving through this evening and overnight just a few spots of rain in the far north west of the uk. but most places today looking dry, reasonably clear skies holding on through the night for parts of eastern england. it's here that temperatures will fall lowest down into mid single figures, but certainly a frost free start to your saturday morning. so saturday, then, it's the north and the west of the uk that will see most of the low cloud and mist us. most of the low cloud and mist. i think through the morning, lots of sunshine from the word go down towards the southeast and skies will tend to brighten up through the day like

they will today as well. so long spells of sunshine during the afternoon and temperatures between about 13 to 19 for most of us. but again, we could see 20 degrees in one or two spots. 0vernight, then, saturday into sunday, we're going to start to see a weak front moving in from the west, and that peps up a little bit as we head through sunday night and into eastern monday as well, and into easter monday as well, tending to weaken as it moves into that area of high pressure. but it does mean a bit of a change into easter sunday. then we will see a bit more cloud ahead of that front across northern ireland and scotland and later in the day that rain in the far west will be working its way in. but for many central and eastern parts of the uk, you'll keep the sunny, dry conditions through the course of the day and again warm with those light southerly winds. temperatures up to around about 19, possibly 20 degrees. a touch cooler for easter monday, as that frontal system will have worked its way across the uk not bringing too much rain, but it will be followed by some blustery showers in from the north west. but in the sunny spells again, it's going to feel warm, around about ten to 17 degrees. bye— bye.

this is bbc news ? welcome if you re watching here in the uk or around the globe. our top stories: russia says it's hit a factory near the ukraine capital kyiv which produces anti—ship and air—defence missiles — and warns it will intensify its missile attacks. it's after the sinking of the flagship of russia's black sea fleet. ukraine claims its missiles destroyed the moskva, but the kremlin says it was damaged by a fire on board. meanwhile in an exclusive bbc interview in his war bunker, ukraine's president says continuing attacks from russia are damaging chances of a peace deal. bucha is in this process closing these possibilities.

bucha, borodyanka, mariupol.