welcome to bbc news — i'm david eades. ukraine says russia's large—scale offensive in the east has begun, with president zelenskyy 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 firepower and is prepared to use it. a us federaljudge throws out the covid—19 mandate forcing people to wear a mask in public buildings or on public tranport.

prince harry speaks to the bbc about the invictus games, and how ukrainian soldiers are taking part against the odds. so they remove their uniforms, put the team strips on, for a couple of days, tried to decompress and then they're straight into it and they've got to go back. ukraine says that russian forces have now embarked on the large—scale offensive in the east of the country that has been aniticpated for the past week. indeed, theyappear to have expanded their bombardments, with sites right across the country being hit over the past 2a hours. in a televised address, president volodymyr zelensky laid out the scale of the attack and the challenge for his forces in the donbas.

translation: we can assess now that russian military has| begun the battle for donbas, for which they have been preparing a long time. a very large part of the russian army is now concentrated for this offensive. no matter how many of the russian troops are there, we will be fighting. we will defend ourselves and do everything that we must to keep what's ukrainian. what is not, we simply don't need it. earlier, the secretary of ukraine's national security council said russian forces had tried to break through almost the entire front line in the donetsk, luhansk and kharkiv regions. thousands continue to flee as russia steps up its new offensive — massing troops in the region

where ukrainian forces have been fighting russian—led separatists for the past eight years. our defence correspondent, jonathan beale, reports from eastern ukraine. this is now the sight and sound of the donbas. severodonetsk, another city and another target for russia's unrelenting bombardment. we tried to enter to speak to families taking shelter, but the thump of artillery was steadily coming closer. explosions let's go. well, wejust came here to go to a shelter, but there's shelling a bit close to us, and so we've had to move out. a lot of crump of artillery going on at the moment. nothing appears to be sacred when russia wages war. this, one of the holiest sites in the donbas, but that didn't save svyatogorsk�*s historic monastery from being scarred by a russian air strike. this was once a popular tourist destination.

now it's just another town from which people flee. translation: what can i say? i'm overwhelmed with grief. i'm 70 years old and i've nowhere to live. the few who've stayed behind have to queue for food. they're notjust hungry, though, they're scared. translation: i cry every day. what kind of god would allow this to happen? i cry every day. what kind of god should we ask to stop all this? there is now a strong military presence in this town. just a few miles down the road, russian forces are advancing

from the north. a ukrainian soldier shared this drone footage of how they were trying to slow down the russian columns — blowing up a bridge. but they know more will be coming. translation: we know that russian forces are bringing i reinforcements into this region, but we're doing everything possible. we are ready to repel the russian occupiers and prevent the capture of our cities. we will stand to the last and defend our homeland. we headed south, the roads eerily empty. four, five... we soon found out why. plumes of smoke — once again, we were within range of russian artillery. turn, turn. staying put is like russian roulette but with heavy shelling. galena's home was nearly hit overnight. they were still replacing the blown—out windows. inside, her 11—year—old granddaughter, anastasia, too frightened to come out,

cowering under a desk that's become her bedroom. anastasia's mum, svetlana, fears they're now trapped. the constant bombardment�*s also taking its toll on the city of avdiivka. here, they're praying for divine intervention. pastor oleg offers a blessing and food for those who've stayed behind. but in a heated discussion, one man tells him, "it's the russians who'll bring us salvation." pastor oleg tells him, "i'm not against russia — "i'm against its invasion of ukraine." nowhere is safe within range of russian artillery, and as we've seen, russia is pushing forward from the north, from the east and from the south. and there's a real danger that ukraine's forces here could be surrounded.

for now, they're holding out. so, too, are the remaining citizens of avdiivka, hiding in bunkers. but for how long? jonathan beale, bbc news, eastern ukraine. meanwhile 7 people have been killed in missile strikes in the western city of lviv, less than 70 kilometres from the polish border,which has been relatively unscathed throughout the conflict. our correspondent, danjohnson, has been to the site of one of the attacks, and sent us this report. this is how the people of lviv found out their city wasn't as safe as they thought. missile strikes across the skies on a bright morning hitting buildings right in the heart of the city and bringing the conflict closer to the west. an industrial unit was hit.

firefighters filmed their efforts to put out the blaze and save the lives of the people inside, having their morning coffee before work, when the missile landed. the families of those caught up in this couldn't keep back. this couple heard the news, tried to call their only son, yuri, but got no answer. he was 26. translation: he was going to marry and now we have to bury him. what's your message to the people who did this? translation: it has not been done by humans. . humans cannot do such things. they are not humans. they are barbaric invaders. the crater gives some sense of the power of this explosion and i actually saw the muscles this morning flying across the city

skyline and then hitting. this is one of the places that has been devastated, it is a car garage, a service centre, the place that you get tyres fitted, but it is completely devastated and there is so much clearing up to do here, and that's to say nothing of the loss of life. four of the workers here were killed this morning. ukrainians believe this is a reminderfrom russia that it still has firepower and is prepared to use it. we're told the missiles were fired from aircraft in the region of the caspian sea, a long way away. they shook the whole neighbourhood. falya's lived just across the road all her life. translation: our windows were shattered, _ everybody was frightened. we didn't know what to do. we started praying. we didn't know whether to stay or whether to flee. local officials said there were three strikes on military warehouses in addition to the garage. across the city, seven people died and ii were injured. translation: what we see today

in ukraine is genocide _ which is purposefully committed by the aggressor who kills civilians. seven civilians had plans for life. today, their lives have ended. once again, ukrainian rescue teams are carrying out the grimmest tasks, passing on the worst news to families. if anyone needed it, this was an early—morning reminder that this country, all of it and all its people, are still at war and still under threat. danjohnson, bbc news, lviv. mark f cancian is a senior adviser at the center for strategic studies in washington. he explained the possible rationale for russian missile strikes on lviv. that's a great question. it sounds like the russians may be going after the supply lines and bringing equipment from poland into ukraine, there was talk there about some warehouses, and the tyre factory,

it may be that the russians which is try to interdict this flow of supplies which has been really critical to the ukrainian resistance. and critical to russia's new approach to hit hard on the donbas region. i think we got a sense from president zelenskyy that there that, i wouldn't say a sense of awe come but that this is going to be a very heavy—duty. absolutely, this is the moment we've been expecting for a couple of weeks now, as they move their troops to the east, we knew they were going to launch a new offensive, an offensive has started started and it's quite threatening to the ukrainians. it sounds like the russians are attacking from the north and the south, that has the possibility of pinching off the ukrainians who are holding in the east there against the separatist regions. it's going to be, i think, a climactic battle for this war.

is there still a way, do you think, that the ukrainian sense that we've seen to a large extent in terms of deterring and pushing back the russians can continue or is there a sort of harsh reality to face up to at some point here? well, i think the ukrainians are showing they are very tough fighters and there is every reason to believe they could hang on. we've sent them a tremendous amount of arms and they and they are really well supplied, their morale seems to be holding up well, they are fighting in many places from fixed positions. the russians have taken a lot of casualties and many of their units have been chewed up pretty well. there is every reason to think the ukrainians could come out on top but nevertheless the russians have amassed a great deal of firepower, we've been seeing that. they've amassed a great deal of armour, they have a powerful army and it's going to be a terrible fight. very briefly around mariupol, the humanitarian corridors,

they are still not functioning as such. is that part of the plan, do you think? that's possible. the humanitarian corridors have been a problem from the very beginning. the ukrainians have tried to open them up, the russians have not been very cooperative, so it's hard to say. that's been a problem a problem, the russians have not been very open to allowing humanitarian supplies into these besieged cities. in the united states — a federaljudge in florida has voided a national mask mandate — covering planes and other public transport, ruling that the covid—i9 mitigation measure exceeds the authority of federal health officials. the mask mandate was recently extended by the cdc until 3 may. the justice department is reviewing the judge's decision and white house press secretaryjen psaki called the ruling "disappointing," and said the administration is "continuing to recommend people wear masks". earlier i spoke

to our north america correspondent peter bowes, and i asked if they have been judged to have got it wrong. well, it looks like it could be. it does depend, as you mentioned, on thejustice department, what they decide to do about this but there is that question at this stage in the pandemic whether they will consider it necessary or wise to challenges thejudge's decision. this is a mandate that has been in force sincejust afterjoe biden took office, february of last year. it has been extended several times and as you mentioned again for the next couple of weeks, that's likely because of the new variants that have emerged. there are rising numbers of infections around the united states, not huge numbers but it is on the increase and that has raised concerns. the city of philadelphia for example has just reintroduced controversially its mandate, its mask—wearing mandate,

for inside public buildings but generally that is going against the trend and most mandates have been lifted and it seems as if, that it does now apply to airports, to taxis, trains, the subway systems and to ride—sharing services like uber. it does seem to get ever harder to reinstitute the sort of mandates, doesn't it? i saw a few moments ago i think american airlines has said also masks are out now. yes, several of the airlines. very quickly, alaska airlines, united airlines all saying the same thing, that essentially it is up to the individual to decide whether they want to wear a mask or not and of course that doesn't necessarily mean that if you prefer for your own personal reasons to wear a mask for your own safety you can continue to do that, as you can in a supermarket

or indeed any public place in the united states. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the ukrainian athletes inspiring prince harry at the invictus games for injured soldiers and veterans. the stars and stripes at half—mast outside columbine high. the school sealed off. the bodies of the dead still inside. i never thought they would actually go through with it. one of the most successful- singer—songwriters of all time, the american pop star prince has died at the age of 57. - i didn't believe it, he was just here on saturday. for millions of americans the death of richard nixon,

in a new york hospital, has meant conflicting emotions. a national day of mourning next wednesday, sitting somehow uneasily with the abiding memories of the shame of watergate. and liftoff of the space shuttle discovery, with the huddle space telescope, our window on the universe. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: ukraine says russia has launched its large—scale offensive in the east of the country. president zelensky warns the battle for the donbas region is underway. seven people die in the western city of lviv, as parts of the country previously unscathed, come underfire. a canadian investigative group, citizen lab, says computer networks at the british prime minister's office, 10 downing street,

and the foreign office have been infected with pegasus spyware. the investigators said they'd notified the british government about security breaches in 2020 and in 2021. citizen lab said the foreign office infections were believed to be linked to operations out of the united arab emirates, cyprus and jordan, and could have been related to staff serving abroad. i spoke to ronan farrow who broke this story in the new yorker magazine. what is the scale of this? well, part of what makes this frightening for world powers now is we have seen parallel yarns of unfolding in the uk and the us, where they're certainly targeting of our diplomats abroad. that is also now true — i have reported in the story — many other countries. there's been a reporting from a coalition of outlets, called the pegasus project, over recent years that has also talked about government officials all over western europe getting hacked. this is something where very often even

the governments themselves don't know the full scale and from the uk officials i spoke to, that is absolutely the case here. they did uncover evidence that there was this breach of the network at 10 downing street, and there was also some unknown in the exact scope number of hacks of diplomats associated with the foreign office. right, i suppose the question has to be then, what can the foreign office, downing street, actually do about these hacks? i mean, it feels like the cat is out of the bag, isn't it? how do you control this? well, you know, one of the questions i have gotten in response to this reporting is how diligent was gchq? how diligent was ncsc? and the answer is, you know, i spoke to officials who work on the technical side, and a lot of these are career folks who are very good at theirjobs and who responded swiftly and robustly when they learned about these hacks, but to your point, once data has been exfiltrated, and that is certainly the suspicion of citizen lab,

looking at the telemetry, they think that there was actually data taken from these networks. the damage has, in a sense, been done. what you can do is make sure you enact better security, that you switch people's devices and we just have to hope that senior officials who are targets for the sort of thing are willing to do that kind of swap. i suppose some of the focus falls back on the nso group i suppose some of the focus falls back on the nso group that provides the spy ware in the first place, with all assurances that they only provide to bona fide governments, etc. how trustworthy are they? well, you know, i spent a lot of time interviewing this company's ceo, shalev hulio, and he describes the firm as a new kind of arms dealer and says, essentially, look, we provide a legitimate but dangerous service. we do it more legitimately and with vetting from of the israeli government, than a lot of actors in this space — there are plenty of rogue hackers that will do this in a totally unrestrained way. to your point, he says, we only

sell to law enforcement. but i think that the numerous cases they document in this story, including the largest cluster of hacks using this company's tool, pegasus, on record, in catalonia, the spanish autonomous region, does underscore to your point that those assurances only go so far. that those assurances only go so far, that even when supposedly legitimate governments are using this tool, it can be abused, and that there needs to be, as there is for traditional weapons, more regulation than there is now. ronan farrow there for us. let's get some of the day's other news: the south african government has declared a state of disaster in response to floods in kwazulu—natal province. i0,000 soldiers are being deployed to the region as part of the relief effort. rainstorms and mudslides have killed more than 400 people. at least 60 people are believed to be still missing. in libya, demonstrators have staged protests at several oil facilities across the country, halting production

at the sites. the protestors are demanding that the country's tripoli—based prime minister hand over power to a rival government that was formed last month. the country's national oil corporation says that disruptions to the energy sector are likely to get worse. the us envoy for north korea, sung kim, has had talks with south korean officials in seoul about pyongyang's recent missile tests. on saturday, north korea tested a short—range weapon which is thought to be designed to carry a nuclear warhead. america's envoy said that the us and its allies would react responsibly and decisively to any escalation. prince harry has hailed the courage of the ukrainian national team at the invictus games, the international sporting event for injured servicemen, women, and veterans. he was speaking to the bbc as the competition continues in the hague. from there, our correspondent anna holligan reports.

each competitor bears the scars of conflict. for many who thought they wouldn't make it, sport has provided a lifeline. in an interview with the bbc, prince harry highlighted how far the ukrainians had come. i think what people need to remember, or perhaps don't even know yet, is a vast majority of the ukraine team were serving, in some shape orform. so they removed their uniforms, put their team strips on, jumped on the coach, came over here, slept for a couple days, tried to decompress and then were straight into it. and then they've got to go back. so, i think to have them here is extraordinary. their presence has added poignancy. many will be returning to the battlefield. translation: we don't have another choice. - it's simply the question of survival of our nation and our people. all of us must fight. our government decided we should be here,

despite the difficult situation, and talk to the world, show that we are getting killed, but we are fighting and staying alive. his attitude embodies the spirit of these games, but there is a focus here, too, on repairing lives. invictus athletes are encouraged to bring the people who have been part of their journey to recovery. there's a real family vibe here inside the invictus park. these games are partly designed to recognise and celebrate the vital role that families play as support structures, helping wounded soldiers to rebuild their lives. and this is a mission the prince wants to extend even further, taking invictus into new territories. we're constantly inviting new nations, because this is about healing, and as the bigger teams, us and uk, perhaps decrease in number, it will provide an opportunity for more nations to come in, who desperately need this opportunity

and this place to heal together. anna holligan, bbc news, in the hague. and before we go, i want to show you these pictures of president biden who has marked easter monday by taking part in the traditional easter egg roll event at the white house. he was accompanied by his wife, jill, and flanked by two easter bunnies, as he re—introduced the event for the first time since the pandemic. the easter egg roll dates back to the 19th century and features hundreds, or even thousands, of children who've been invited to search for treats in the grounds of the white house. the children seem very well hidden, as does resident biden! —— president biden. a reminder of our top story: ukraine says the long—anticipated russian offensive in the east of the country has begun,

nearly two months president putin launched his invasion. the ukrainian leader, volodymyr zelensky, said a large number of russian troops was focused on the donbas region. you are watching bbc news. 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 though 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, a lot of 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 notable 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 up from the south. take care.

this is bbc news — the headlines: ukraine says russia has launched its anticipated large—scale offensive in the east of the country. president zelenskyy has warned the battle for the donbas had now begun. military experts say moscow appears to be trying to weaken ukraine's combat abilities in the region before an all—out assault. ukraine says missile strikes have killed at least seven people in the western city of lviv, which had largely escaped attack until now. three military warehouses and a car garage were hit in the assault. the european union has condemed what it called the "indiscriminate and illegal shelling of civilians" the south african government has declared a state

of disaster in response to floods in kwazulu—natal