this is bbc news. i'm martine croxall, and these are the headlines... aid agencies call for better access to the earthquake disaster zones from turkey to syria as the number of people killed in both countries rises to nearly 25,000. the united nations estimates the earthquakes may have left nearly 5.5 million people homeless in syria. the government there says it will allow aid to be delivered to rebel—held parts of the country. despite the odds, people are still being pulled out alive from under the rubble in both countries, more than 120 hours after the first earthquake struck. us fighterjets shoot down an unidentified aircraft over alaska after president biden gave the order to seek and destroy. troops are trying to salvage the wreckage. in washington — president lula of brazil is seeking joe biden�*s backing for a new global forum, to fight climate change.

residents in australia and new zealand are urged to take shelter as cyclone gabrielle hurtles towards the islands threatening to bring destructive winds and heavy rain. you're watching bbc news. now, it's time for powering ukraine. russian missiles and drones rain down on ukraine's civilian infrastructure, causing untold damage. it's been happening for months. this is ukraine's energy war,

a constant battle for heat and light, with an army of engineers racing to keep the country connected. for ukrainians, it has been a winter of darkness and uncertainty. how does a country respond when the stakes are so high? if the power system collapses, that would mean the suffering of tens of millions of people during wintertime. we cannot allow that,

not on my watch. we follow the teams fighting this war. what the missiles destroy, they rebuild, in places where people are living on the edge. this power plant in central ukraine has been hit repeatedly. it's a huge place, but this is what well—aimed russian missiles have done to the country's infrastructure. missile fragments litter the place. for security reasons, we have been asked not to identify

the plant or its manager. so what happened here? this is where electricity begins its journey from the power plant to the world outside, the first links in a complex chain.

since october, moscow has been working systematically to sever those links, to break the system into pieces, to break the will of the people. every corner of this huge complex bears the scars. while the threat still exists, not everything will be repaired.

millions of people depend on this coal—fired power station, built in the soviet era, its great turbines turning away at the heart of ukraine's sprawling power network. fantastic machine. the system now generating half as much electricity as it did a year ago. the staff here know they are in russia's sights. ihor is the plant's chief technician, on duty the morning of the first attack. when he arrived here in the main control room, he found a chaotic scene.

so the whole power station is run from this room. did all of this get switched off? it has been weeks since the last

attack here, but this morning the alarms keep coming. siren so there's the siren. we had been expecting it this morning. we have to get out of the turbine hall and head straight for the shelter. incoming missiles have been detected, flying towards ukraine from the south and east. there is time to take cover. on days like these, hours are spent underground. anxious moments as news comes in of a fresh wave of attacks. their colleagues at a power station in the west have taken a direct hit. they know this could have been them, and closer to home, word is spreading of something much worse.

across town, the tragedy is unfolding. a missile has struck an apartment building. the rescue effort is frantic. dozens of people have died here. the missile that did this was huge. designed half a century ago to destroy aircraft carriers. it was almost certainly aimed at the power station. some of russia's attacks are accurate. many are not. russia's assault has brought death and darkness to ukraine's cities. the nights are long and cold, the power cuts frequent. a whole nation plunged

into a world of adjustments. for david, not yet two, it is mostly a game. that's how his parents prefer to keep it, especially when sirens wail and missiles fall. it's 8:30. a power cut is coming. it's time for bed. here we go. yes, yes. there we go, it is 9:20 and a few minutes late but the power cut has begun. after months of this, the fear and the novelty have long gone. this is how millions of ukrainians have learned to spend their evenings — unfazed, organised.

this war on energy is notjust about ukraine's power stations, it's about the entire infrastructure, the grid that keeps this vast country with electricity and heating. and it's that grid that has been hit over and over again since october. we're off down a rather bumpy road see a piece of that grid now. to see a piece of that grid now. and again, we cannot tell you where it is.

this is serhii's substation. the place where he has worked for 30 years. since september, he has watched it be demolished, bit by bit, six separate attacks. four months ago, he saw a kamikaze drone destroy the control room and his office, knocking the whole substation off—line, cutting power to millions of people. the attackers knew exactly what they were doing.

the substation�*s 750 kilovolt transformers won't be easy to replace. they weigh 300 tons and take months to produce. only three or four countries in the world make them. one of them is russia. ukraine is scouring the globe, looking for substitutes. we are far from this war�*s frontlines but everyone who works here feels like a soldier. in this forest of machinery, there is a quiet, steely determination.

do you feel angry? for who? we travel on south, towards frontline communities under regularfire. ukraine's battalion of engineers racing from one repairjob to the next. speaks ukrainian. this happens all the time, volodymyr tells me. we're on our way to a village shelled just last night. the power lines are down, again. the repairs won't take long but the men know they will be back.

the battle to keep ukraine connected takes many forms — repairing wires, diverging power, concealing what is and is not working. it's a constant struggle, fraught with danger. distant explosions. in the nearby village, the sound of artillery has the mayor ducking for cover.

how long do you think you can carry on living here in this situation? or do people want to leave? in places where the frontlines have moved, there's other work to do. here, teams are busy reconnecting towns and villages cut off behind russian lines for months.

where the army has been, the engineers must follow. speaks ukrainian. fedir is another veteran. his home town is under regular attacks are his wife and grandchildren are living in poland. he is out in the field every day. pylon by pylon, cable by cable, connections are re—established. these are battered places, scarred by recent conflict. fresh graves speak of long, difficult months and long, difficult lives.

the engineers wait as emergency teams go ahead, inspecting the ground, looking for discarded weapons. it's slow, painstaking work. how long do you think it will take to fix everything?

and while the country waits, it simply copes. city streets echoing to the sound of generators. mobile phones lighting the way. life somehow continuing. and a mounting sense that ukraine has, for now, weathered the storm. this battle is finely balanced between russia's ability to inflict damage and ukraine's efforts to repair it, to give peoplejust enough power to get by.

those who run the grid have no illusions about the struggles ahead. russians failed to take down our system or to cause big disturbance in our system. having said that, unfortunately, they are gradually destroying very important items of equipment in our grid which takes time to be restored. and yet, despite all of this damage, as you travel around this country, it becomes obvious that ukraine is not on its knees. we were prepared and we were very resolved to win this particular bout. we have no other way than to win because if we lose, if our system collapses, that would mean suffering of tens of millions of people

during wintertime. we cannot allow that. when i am asked this question, i often say, "not on my watch". and if somebody told me before that our power grid could stand like 1000 missiles and drones and still run and still deliver power to consumers, i would probably not believe it but now, we know that we are resilient and we are much more ready now for the new attacks than we have been on the 10th of october. russia thought it would break ukraine but its campaign isn't working. half the grid may be in tatters but in helmets and body armour, these men are keeping it alive.

the war�*s terrible cost is evident wherever you look. the sacrifices have been immense. but power, the lifeblood of a nation, still reaches across the land.

hello there. plenty of cloud around and not much sun this weekend, but it will be a mild theme. quite a contrast tojust a it will be a mild theme. quite a contrast to just a couple of mornings ago, in didcot 0xfordshire, where temperatures fell as low as minus seven celsius and there was a hard frost. take a look at 0xfordshire this morning, what a difference, a beautiful start despite this cloudy skies, quite quiet out there. we are still under the influence of high pressure at the influence of high pressure at the moment, but a subtle change in wind direction has brought this march change to the fuel of the weather. you have this milder air source driving and quite a lot of cloud of the atlantic, so it is a grey, cloudy start, and the cloud thick enough on one or two spots for a touch of drizzle, but there will be some breaks in the cloud, may be across parts of wales and eastern scotland in south—east england for the later parts of the afternoon. does temperatures, not bad for this time of year, peaking perhaps around 13 or maybe 1a degrees if the sunshine continues in parts of

aberdeenshire. 0vernight tonight we may keep the clear skies here, temperatures falling away, but elsewhere a blanket of cloud keeps things frost free once again. that does mean for most of us, another great start to our sunday morning. there will be some differences on sunday, the wind is starting to pick up sunday, the wind is starting to pick up a little, a blustery afternoon, and that means for scotland and northern ireland, the west facing coast of wales, a greater chance of seeing more sunshine. central and eastern england may be cloudy, grey skies once again. figures vary across the country. as you move into monday, they will not be much change. high pressure will start to drift its way a little further east, more of a southerly, and potential with that breezy story to see the cloud breaking upjust a touch. maybe central and eastern england again, sunshine amounts will be fairly limited. it will be highs of around nine to 12 degrees, so again are mild story continues. if you're

starting to get desperate for rain, gardeners and growers out there, there is a weather front starting to push on, but it is going to move somewhat erratically and from the west. there is a potential tuesday into wednesday of seeing some outbreaks of rain, and then from wednesday onwards, a little more unsettled, the rain turn showery, but it will be mild for all. take care.

this is bbc news, welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm martine croxall. our top stories: aid agencies call for better access to the earthquake disaster zones from turkey to syria as the number of people killed in both countries rises to more than 211,000. over on that side of the border, there is the constant sound of sirens, of heavy machinery, of people working. there is none of that here. down there there are small children removing the rubble. the united nations estimates the earthquakes may have left nearly 5.5 million people homeless in syria. the government there says it will allow aid to be delivered to rebel—held parts of the country. despite the odds, people are still being pulled out alive from under the rubble in turkey, more than 120 hours after the first earthquake struck.

surviving the earthquake, that's the first hurdle.