this is bbc news. i'm frankie mccamley and these are the headlines: downing street says talks with the eu over a brexit deal covering northern ireland have been "positive" — raising hopes of an imminent new agreement on trade. also in northern ireland — a fifth person has been arrested in connection with the attempted murder of the off—duty police officerjohn caldwell in omagh who remains in a critical condition in hospital. millions of nigerians have been voting in their country's most competitive election since military rule ended there more than two decades ago. china's plans for peace in ukraine cause ripples around the world — president zelensky says he wants to hear more — and the leader of russia's key ally belarus announces plans

to fly to beijing. you're watching bbc news. now it's time for president zelensky: unspun world special. this is just one very small part of all the destruction that russia has visited on ukraine during the past year. we are only 18 miles from kyiv here, the closest the russian troops came to the capital before they were thrown back. one man has personified ukraine's resistance to the russian onslaught. an actor who used to play the part of ukraine's president in a television soap opera,

and then ran for the job for real, and won, only to find last february, he had to play a new role — the leader of a country that was fighting for its very existence. president volodymyr zelensky. mr president, a year ago, would you have thought that you would be sitting here, still president, and the war would still be going on?

but did you think you would survive?

we are going to go back to february of 2022. these are russian vehicles building up towards the invasion, in this case... helicopters. all of these building up along the ukrainian border. did you think that this was going to turn into a war, or did you think that the russians were just going through the motions in order to put pressure on you?

but did you think that they were really going to invade, or did you think it was just a threat? did you think they were right? yes.

so you did actually think that the russians would invade? you were pretty certain of that? how did the news come to you that the invasion had started? who woke you up to tell you?

do you remember your emotions when you heard the news? so you told your wife to pack. where was she going? where would she have gone?

is it true the americans offered you transport out of here to some place of safety?

can i show you pictures of yourself as you were? speaks ukrainian in clips so you are wearing a suit and a tie. post—invasion, wearing these kind of clothes, which you have worn ever since. was that your idea? did somebody suggest it to you? to get out of the suit, and into the...fatigues? it was very strange. my costume, it wasn't... so, the time changed, and the time changed, and it was not comfortable to speak with people in such difficult situation, and i wanted to say then i will support and i will be here, and of course, and i didn't take with me any suit here also, so it was...

somebody on my team, like some assistants, they said, maybe you can tryjust... and i had military, i had some t—shirt and i said, yes, of course. then i did it. it was more comfortable, and it was more understandable for people, what's going on, because that is the war. it is a very strange war when you are in a suit. can you imagine a time when you will go back to a tie and a suit? yes, of course, yes! i know, i know it. when will that be? after our victory. maybe on the day of our victory, maybe after this day, but it will be, of course. of course it will be, because i will be the president of peace country, the country which is in peace, and it will be, i'm sure.

as the russian troops made their drive for the capital, an assault which the kremlin assumed would only take around ten days, we saw the kind of scenes that were more reminiscent of 1940 in belgium, holland and france than something in the 21st century right here. after this key bridge linking irpin to kyiv was destroyed, the local residents could only escape by going through the ruins on foot. these were just some of the millions of president zelensky�*s people who have been forced by this war to leave their homes. let's look at the pictures of what happened in those very early days, with huge numbers of people trying to leave the country. yes.

it's very moving, isn't it? it was... it was very... it was everywhere. it really was a mess. i mean, a lot of people, a lot of people been in shock. they ran and they wanted to save their lives. could you have stopped it? should you have stopped it? no, i didn't do it. i didn't stop them. we helped them with the leaders. i had phone calls, a lot of first world, poland, open all the borders, yes?

open all the borders, all these facilities, all this infrastructure, and i asked him, we spoke in the morning and then in the night. he did, and i am very thankful for him, for duda, for morawiecki, president and prime minister. they really did it very quickly, very quickly. because the lines, the lines of cars and people without cars, in buses orjust, you know, by foot, it was kilometres and kilometres. and some of them run to the western part of ukraine, somebody to another country, to poland and romania and hungary and germany, etc. it wasn't a mistake? again, no, no. of course, that is the choice of the people. that is their life. i didn't give them their life, but i know that because of so many strong people who didn't go away,

who were in their places, and who worked, from volunteers to soldiers, just to people, to doctors, who stand strong, and i think with all the respect toward the choice of other people, i just want to say that, if everybody runs away, i think we are lost, we would have lost our country. i think so, yes. you've had a lot of promises of help from the west. but some things are going to take a long time to arrive, some weapon systems. you're facing an immediate attack by russia, aren't you? quite an onslaught that you're expecting. are you going to be able to survive without those new weapons?

mr president, all wars end, and they usually end in a deal which nobody really wants. will this war end with your having to give up some of the territory that you lost before 2014, or perhaps some of the territory you lost last year?

as the russian troops pulled back last spring from the area around kyiv, the evidence grew of civilian killings, a war crime. ukrainian troops entering the city of bucha found the bodies of dozens of civilians strewn along one of the main streets. a year later, there's still an enormous amount of reconstruction to be done here in bucha, and yet life is starting to return to normal. even on a street like this where the russians killed so many civilians. let's go to the pictures of what happened after the russian withdrawal, in bucha, for instance. yeah.

this is bucha. yes. this is pretty... yes. i was there just after, when we de—occupied it. yes, we've been there. yes. and that was tragedy, and it wasn't a movie. you see that was real life. and i think we became... when we saw what they've done in bucha, i think all of us, people who were there and people who watched this, and i think everybody, became older, really older, and... so how to command it? i think you see that is the face. i really... it's my opinion that bucha is not the face of ukraine, of the war.

no, bucha is the face of russia. that is their real face, what they really think about us, their real attitude to our people. can you forgive them? no, never. never. you know... the russian people or putin? remember why we say "never again" after world war ii, after all those millions of deaths, millions of people who were in such, such bloody war. yes, never again. why do we say "never again"? because we can't... we don't want it. if there we have "never again", here we'll never forgive. that's true — we'll never forgive. that is, for today, that is their question, a russian society question — "what do we have to do to be

forgiven by ukrainians?" that is their question. the strategically important city of mariupol has been one of the most heavily bombed areas of the war. russian forces finally captured mariupol in may after a brutal siege had reduced much of the city to rubble and killed thousands of civilians. what happened in mariupol was really one of the worst things of this entire year, wasn't it? tell me your feelings about it and your thoughts on it now, all these months later. that was first, or one of the first...

a big supporting of ukraine, the example of such big bravery. that was really about it. it wasn't about, "you have to go out or be in in." it was about another things. that was the example, that was the first signal that, "they will never beat us." yes, and that is a very important moment. i think it's historical because of this, because different people were there, soldiers and civilians and journalists and photographers, guys with cameras, and a lot of them died, wounded or alive. but that was a totally joint signal — "you will never beat us." do you think he'll attack you from belorussia? i think he's not ready. he's not ready. and it will be a big mistake, for him and for belorussia. it will be a historical mistake, because they will not occupy us because they are not so strong

and they've been and they couldn't do it, so now it will be for them a huge challenge and problem to occupy kyiv. but if belorussia does involve itself with this fight, can you survive? we'll fight. we will survive. we will survive, yeah. your wife was quoted as saying you don't smile as much as you used to. it's obviously taken a real toll of you, hasn't it, this war? i mean, i can see — i saw you last in october. forgive me, but you look more tired, perhaps a little older and paler and so on. what is the effect on you as a person? i think it's good news that you recognised me today. and what i think, so i'm... i'm not tired.

i think i was tired on the first night of the full—scale invasion. after that time, i'm... i'm like all of the ukrainians who were all these days in ukraine. we are tired. but something other... we are ready. we are not relaxed. i can't feel this pleasure if i don't have this victory, if somebody loses, somebody, today. so i don't, i can't, you know, i don't feel it and i will not feel it. and next time when we'll see each other, maybe i will look again older and more tired. but you have to know that once, when you come, and of course we'll win, i will again be looking very young and smile! thank you. thanks so much.

hello. well, it certainly feels on the chilly side today, particularly in the wind. and the sunshine has been somewhat hit and miss today as well. you can see rather a lot of cloud across many central, northern and eastern areas of the country. here's the forecast for this evening. that chilly breeze continues. even one or two showers. the skies will clear, particularly across western and central areas through the course of tonight. so there will be a touch of frost early in the morning. and then these are the mid morning temperatures, early to mid morning temperatures typically around i to 5 degrees celsius. the forecast for tomorrow shows

a few showers perhaps around the northeast of england, maybe the borders of scotland. but i think generally speaking, it's a dry day and a fairly bright one, too. again, quite chilly, but i think the winds won't be quite as strong tomorrow, so perhaps it'll feel a little less cold. the forecast then into monday shows very similar weather with that high pressure sticking around, just the odd fleeting shower.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. our top stories: millions of nigerians have been voting in their country's most competitive election since military rule ended there more than two decades ago. china's plans for peace in ukraine cause ripples around the world — president zelensky says he wants to hear more — and the leader of russia's key ally belarus announces plans to fly to beijing. downing street says talks with the eu over a brexit deal covering northern ireland have been �*positive�* — raising hopes of an imminent new agreement on trade.