this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories after this programme at the top of the hour. air raid siren wails 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... 0k. ..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. 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. 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! 0h! 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.

not the best case, not the best situation when i want to see my country. 0k. 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. 0k. 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. for those of you who have extended your easter break into this week, there is some good weather news, in that there'll be a lot of dry weather around. admittedly, there will be some showers, more especially

during the next 2a hours, and as the week goes on, an increasing breeze will turn eastern areas that bit cooler. out there to start tuesday, a bit of a chilly start as it is. a touch of frost in places, particularly in southern scotland, across ireland and towards the borders of southeast wales and southwest midlands. a lot of cloud, though, across england to begin with, already producing one or two showers, a few lingering showers in the west from overnight. but through the day, the cloud starts to increase across parts of england into wales, and showers become a bit more abundant, some of those becoming heavy and thundery. showers throughout the day in the highlands of scotland, and whilst the odd ones possibly in northern ireland, southern and eastern scotland, there will be dry and sunny weather to come here, and much more sunshine in east anglia and the southeast later. temperatures down in recent days, but at levels we should be this stage in mid—april. so, some showers then continue into the night, but notice how they're starting to track further westwards. a developing easterly breeze, most noticeable for england and wales. that could bring in some mist and low cloud toward some eastern coasts of northern england and east scotland, not only through the night, but into wednesday, where, again, we could start

with a touch of frost in the north and the west. but for most on wednesday, actually a lot more sunshine around, away from those eastern coasts, a few showers dotted around in the west, but more of you will have a dry day. but with that east—to—southeasterly wind, you're going to notice temperatures along those coastal strips close to the north sea a good deal cooler than you've been used to. whereas, sheltered in the west, we're going to see temperatures climb up into the mid—teens, maybe high teens for one or two. so, a big east—west contrast, whereas across europe, it's a north—south contrast. who would've picked norway out for your easter break? 20 degrees in oslo on wednesday, compared to wet and windy conditions and rather cool conditions across eastern spain. spanish costas not looking great over the next few days, due to this area of low pressure. as that pushes its way in towards the mediterranean, high pressure expands across the north atlantic, iceland and scandinavia. we're going to drag in more of an easterly wind for us here in the uk. it does mean a lot of sunshine around for thursday, a bit of cloud building up through the day. an isolated shower can't be ruled out, but most places will be dry. still that east—west split, though, as i mentioned, with temperature conditions, but as we go through into the end of the week

and the weekend, it does look like whilst many in the north will stay dry, increasing chance of some showers spreading out from the south. take care.

welcome to bbc news — i'm david eades. our top stories: ukraine says russia's large—scale offensive in the east has begun, with president zelensky warning the battle for control of the donbas region is on. translation: no matter how many of the russian troops i are there, we will be fighting. we will defend ourselves and we will do everything that we must to keep what is ukrainian. attacks in the west too — seven people die in the city of lviv as parts of the country previously unscathed, come under fire. ukrainians believe this is a reminderfrom russia that it still has higher power and is prepared to use it.