this is bbc news, the headlines: at least 43 people have died after a boat carrying migrants sank near the coast of southern italy. officials say it crashed against rocks in rough weather and several people are still missing. talks between the eu and the uk are continuing to try to strike a new deal over post—brexit trade rules for northern ireland. both sides say an agreement is coming closer. under the current deal, goods coming from other parts of the uk are checked on arrival in northern ireland to allow them to be taken into the republic of ireland without any further checks. ukraine has issued postage stamps featuring a mural by the world—renowned uk graffiti artist banksy to mark the first anniversary of russia's invasion. it depicts a man resembling russian president vladimir putin being thrown during a judo match

with a young boy. you're watching bbc news. now its time for unspun world. 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?

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? where would you have gone? where did they want to take you?

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. victory, if somebody loses somebody today, i can't. 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 there. it's all about high pressure at the moment, dominating the weather story. the centre of the high across scotland. that's where we've had the clearest of the skies and the lowest temperatures. it was minus five first thing this morning in highland, and yes, there was some frost, even some snow to the tops of higher ground. it was a different story, though, across east anglia in comparison to saturday morning. the cloud was a little more well—broken. a beautiful sunrise here. but the high is going to stay with us on the whole across the country today, keeping things largely fine and quiet. but still that wind direction coming from a northeasterly. slightly lighter winds than yesterday, so therefore fewer showers hopefully around. still some cloud across northern england and north wales in particular, and still the risk

of some showers here. we've also had a few showers across the kent coast this morning. but generally, central and southern england and wales, along with northwest scotland and northern ireland keeping the sunshine, and temperatures peaking between seven and nine degrees, pretty much where we should be for the final few days of february. now, as we go into the evening and overnight, the cloud reallyjust drawing in like a blanket over us. and so for many, that means it'll keep those temperatures above freezing. where we've got those clearer skies, particularly out to the west, once again temperatures below freezing and a frost is quite likely. but that quiet theme will stay with us not only for monday but right throughout much of the week. so as we go into monday, we've got this large area of high pressure sitting across the north, and that will continue to give quite a lot of dry weather in the forecast. still the risk of some cloud around, but maybe breaking up across east anglia and the south east of england with more of a breeze here, and still some sunny spells across western areas of scotland, northern ireland and maybe parts of the lake district. ten degrees is quite possible

in the sunnier moments. now, as we move out of monday into tuesday, there's a risk of a few showers during the early hours just drifting their way through the channel. not really amounting to too much. the high continues to stay with us on the whole, and the winds will stay light. so we could potentially be chasing cloud amounts around as we look further ahead. so, on the whole there will be a good deal of dry weather, some sunny spells from time to time, and as we head into the beginning of march, some areas will continue to see temperatures into double figures. that's it, 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: at least 43 people have died — after a boat carrying migrants sinks near the coast of southern italy. the uk and the european union edge closer to a new deal on post—brexit trading rules for northern ireland — but the british government says details still need to be resolved... i don't want to get ahead of ourselves, i understand what you say in that there is a degree of quiet confidence about the progress being made, but we are not there yet. counting is under way in nigeria's most competitive elections in decades — with three candidates still hopeful of becoming president. it is very, very close and it will take a brave man or woman to call the results right now. and — blizzard conditions in unexpected places in america —

as a cold weather front hits california and other