hello, good morning. it's az303m. this is bbc news. the headlines: russia has threatened to intensify attacks on the ukrainian capital kyiv if its territory is further targeted. tensions have risen since russia's iconic warship the moskva sank on thursday. ukraine claims it was responsible. a weapons factory near kyiv has already been partially destroyed in a russian attack. russia has formally warned the united states and its allies against supplying further weapons to ukraine. russia said us arms shipments were adding fuel to the conflict and could lead to what it called "unpredictable consequences". the latest american aid package includes artillery,

drones, armoured vehicles and helicopters. more than 150 palestinians have been injured in clashes with israeli police at the al—aqsa mosque in occupied eastjerusalem. three israeli police officers were also hurt. tensions have been high in recent weeks as the fasting month of ramadan coincides with passover forjewish people and easter for christians. now on bbc news, stephanie hegarty finds relief and heartbreak in equal measure at ukraine's border, as families start to come to terms with their new lives as refugees. 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 odesa, 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? oil, 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. sierns wail if you go to ukraine, you can pick up yourfamily, 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. on 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 their journey. 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 hasjoined the territorial defence forces, in mykolaiv. his wife and daughters made it safely out of ukraine. hello. the uk may have recorded its highest temperature of the year so far on good

friday, in the sunshine in london. but actually, across much of the north and west of the uk, it was quite a cloudy start to the long holiday weekend. it was eastern and south east england that saw most of the sunshine — and for the record, 23.1; celsius was that temperature in central london. to prove the point, the satellite picture showing all the cloud on good friday in the north and west. now, the rule of thumb for saturday's weather is where you're so cloudy, it'll be brighter and warmer, and where you saw the sunshine on good friday, saturday will be just as sunny. and where you get the sunshine, it will feel warmer. temperatures to start the day, no frost, nor will there be for the rest of the weekend. there will early on be quite a bit of cloud towards the north and west, and through much of wales and south west england — it's misty, low cloud, but on through the day, notice how a lot of this disappears, it breaks up, we see the sunshine coming through. could stay rather cloudy in the northern isles, especially shetland, towards the coast of aberdeenshire, misty in places and some of the coasts around cornwall as well. it's a warmer—feeling today more widely across the uk with that sunshine. it's a sunnier day

in northern ireland, too, though cloud increasing will start to bring some outbreaks of rain very slowly in from the west, as we go on through the night into easter sunday morning, also pushing into parts of western scotland, especially the western isles. elsewhere, one or two mist and fog patches, but a recently mild start to easter sunday. and there's a weather front trying to come in on sunday still to some degree being held at bay by this area of high pressure. so, while much of the uk will stay dry, we will see some outbreaks of rain covering more of northern ireland very slowly on through the day, and parts of western scotland, especially into the west isles. and then, later on, some of this rain would just feed in towards western counties of wales and the far south west of england. whereas, elsewhere, you continue with another day of warm, sunny spells. it will feel cooler, where you have the rain. it'll be windier, too, and the weather fronts with, well, weakening rain will move through as we go into easter monday. behind that, you get some sunny spells. it'll feel cooler and, then, another spell of rain looks to be heading into northern ireland and into western,

especially north west scotland, during monday. and with that, there'll be a strengthening wind. the western isles could well see some gales gusts 50 mph or more on easter monday. sunny spells, yes, dry for many, but it will feel cooler by then.

this is bbc news. i'm rich preston. our top stories: russia resumes missile attacks near kyiv. moscow says it targetted a factory making anti—ship weapons and threatens more to come. russia warns the us and its allies against supplying further weapons, saying it's adding fuel to the conflict. disaster teams in south africa are on high alert for further floods as more rain is expected over the weekend. china carries out military exercises near taiwan at the same time as a group of us lawmakers visit taipei. and finding peace on the pitch — how football is helping some children cope with the trauma of war.