this is bbc news, the headlines: thousands of syrian refugees who fled to turkey to avoid the civil war have arrived at the border hoping to go back to their home country, after last week's earthquakes. turkey has said it will allow them to leave for up to six months. a court in the united states has sentenced a 19—year—old white teenager to life in prison without parole for killing ten black people at a supermarket in buffalo, new york state last year. payton gendron live—streamed the attack on social media. an italian court has acquitted the former prime minister, silvio berlusconi, of bribing witnesses to lie about his "bunga bunga" sex parties. he was accused of paying people to provide false testimony. mr berlusconi insisted the parties were simply elegant dinners.

now on bbc news, 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. alarm blares.

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. the 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 the 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. 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 people just 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. the last few days have been pretty settled with high pressure in charge, but things are about to change and thursday is going to be an overcast day across most of the uk. drizzle if not rain, really very murky

conditions to start with. and then towards the end of the week, it could actually turn very wild across some northern parts of the uk. we'll get to that. here's the satellite picture. here's all of that cloud moving off the atlantic. it's a small weather system that will be moving across the uk during the course of thursday and there are more weather systems out in the atlantic coming our way. so, early in the morning, we have thick cloud across many parts of england, wales and northern ireland. outbreaks of rain, drizzle, hill fog too, mild with that — 5 to 7 celsius. but across the north of scotland, we will have had clear skies, so perhaps a touch of frost. so really very murky, grey, overcast, whatever you want to call it, first thing in the morning. later in the day, it does look as though most of that rain should peter out, at least across england and wales, and we'll see one or two bright or sunny spells — with a bit of luck, one or two decent sunny spells. 13 or 14 celsius in the south, a little bit cooler in the north. now, on to friday — nasty low pressure will be

sweeping across scotland. that is going to bring severe gales. exactly where the worst of the winds will be, still a little uncertain, but it does look as though it's northern scotland that will get the worst of the winds, but not only northern scotland, it's also going to get very windy through the lowlands and particularly to the northeast of england, so the east of the pennines — in fact, the apps are already indicating gusts of over 70 miles an hour, for example, in newcastle. so, these winds will cause problems, disruption, possibly blow some trees down as well. so, really keep track of the forecast. the details may change, but it does look as though it's the northern half of the uk that will be very blustery and quite possibly stormy for a time. later on friday, the winds will die down and then in the south, actually, it shouldn't be too bad. breezy, yes, but we're not going to get the gales, and it will stay mild — up to around 14 celsius. now, here's a daisy chain of weather systems as we go through the weekend. so, more cloud pushing our way. i don't think it's going to be raining particularly heavily, but i think there will be a lot

of cloud during the course of saturday and sunday, but one or two glimmers of brightness, too, and on the mild side. bye— bye.

this is bbc news, i'm lisa—marie misztak with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. on the turkish border, thousands of syrian refugees are trying to cross back into their home country after last week's earthquakes. the combined death toll climbs to more than 41,000. commotion in court as the 19—year—old gunman who killed ten black americans at a grocery store in buffalo, new york is sentenced to life in prison without parole. an italian court acquits the former prime minister, silvio berlusconi, of bribing witnesses to lie about his "bunga bunga" sex parties. antarctic glaciers may be more sensitive to changes in sea temperature than previously thought. we have a special report.