this is bbc news. the headlines: the united states is sending another $800 million worth of military assistance to ukraine, including howitzer artillery pieces and phoenix ghost drones, developed specifically for the ukraine conflict. president biden said the nature of the warfare on ukraine's eastern front meant different equipment was required. officials in afghanistan say dozens of people have been killed in four bomb attacks across the country. the first explosion killed more than 30 worshippers in a shia mosque in the northern city of mazar—i—sharif. the group that calls itself islamic state said it carried out two of the attacks. in the united states, lawyers for the actress amber heard have been questioning herformer partner johnny depp in his defamation case against ms heard. jurors were shown text messages in which mr depp referred to a "monster" inside him

that he kept in check. 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. woman screams. it's been a relentless assault on ordinary lives. this is the neighbour, or whatever it was. since the start of the war 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 non—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 home town, bucha. what was it like, looking at all this news coming in of your home town? 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. iwas, like, trying to call them but, like, 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. woman screams. 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 no 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". speaks ukrainian. uh, uh, uh! hey! natasha, my mum.

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? no. 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 non—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 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.

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, 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. but there's some good news. his wife and daughters have escaped from mykolaiv.

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. our weather's going to be pretty settled over the next few days. it's fairly quiet out there right now and not much change on the way for friday. one thing that we will notice is that cool breeze

strengthening day by day, particularly noticeable on the north sea coast, and this often happens when we have high pressure close to iceland there over the norwegian sea, low pressure to the south, and that basically shunts quite a strong airstream from scandinavia across the north sea and cuts through the uk. particularly chilly on those north sea coasts. it'll also drag in some cloud, some moisture, particularly to central and eastern parts of england, so a slow grey, breezy, chilly start to the day here, whereas out towards the west, there'll be sunshine. also, a few showers developing anywhere from london into the south midlands, southern wales, maybe salisbury plain, perhaps the west country but elsewhere, it should be sunny. so, cold on the north sea. on the actual coast, it could be ten degrees, but warmer spots, maybe southwestern parts of scotland, perhaps as high as 19, most of us somewhere in between. also worth noting the tree pollen levels will be generally moderate to high on friday.

so, the weekend, then, that pattern continues, so the high across the north, low pressure to the south. we can see the rain across spain and france, so the bad weather's to the south of us, but we still have that strong breeze and, again, a few showers. perhaps a little more widespread, maybe, spreading into northern parts of england during the course of saturday. again, chilly on the north sea coast, maybe 12 in newcastle, typically 16 there in plymouth and not far off that in belfast as well. here's sunday's weather forecast — more of the same — cold wind out of the north sea and all the bad weather staying way to the south of us and similar temperatures, perhaps not even making double figures there in aberdeen. so, let's have a look at the outlook into monday. slight change in the wind direction, so you can see the high pressure builds down again across the uk, the wind switches direction — it will be more of a northerly. so, temperatures will actually drop as we go through the course of next week, maybe making around 10, ii, 12 degrees across some northern towns and cities. bye— bye.

welcome to bbc news. i'm nuala mcgovern. our top stories: president biden announces another $800 million of military help for ukraine in what he calls a critical phase of the war. to modernise teddy roosevelt's famous advice, sometimes we will speak softly and carry a largejavelin, because we are sending a lot of those in as well. as president putin claims to have taken control of mariupol, we report on how some have managed to leave the besieged city. dozens of people are killed in four bomb attacks across afghanistan. a shia mosque was among the targets. bonjour! comment ca va? ca va! ca va, merci! we're on the chaotic campaign trail of marine le pen, who's hoping to become president of france on sunday. it's always like this on campaign trail le pen.

there's protectors, press and protesters