this is bbc news, the headlines: the head of russia's wagner group says its forces now surround most of bakhmut — the eastern ukrainian city that's been the focus of intensive fighting. we have practically surrounded bakhmut. only one route out of the city remains. if earlier we were fighting against the professional army, now we are increasingly seeing old people and children. police in australia say they've made one of their biggest ever drug busts, seizing cocaine worth us$1 billion. the white house confirms president biden had a cancerous skin lesion removed from his chest during a routine health screening. and the ceremony has been held injerusalem to consecrate the oil

that will be used to anoint king charles at his coronation in may. you're watching bbc news. now it's time for ukraine: the children's story. the day before war started, it was just like any other. we played with our friends and ate with our families. that night was the last time our dreams were peaceful, and then, fire would dance, lighting up the skies. but we woke to explosions. the sky burst into red and yellow, the windows and walls shook. no—one knew what to do.

in the skies above us, helicopters swarmed and multiplied. we watched as tanks rolled in. millions of people fled. they packed into overcrowded trains while thousands more waited on platforms. men had to stay behind, so families and loved ones were separated. many people reached other countries and found safety. but some of us couldn't or didn't, and now, this is our life. speaks ukrainian. air raid siren wails.

is that an air raid siren? so, we'vejust heard a little air raid siren, which means that we have to go outside. you can see the kids are all going to be lining up, and they don't look very scared, they're used to this — these sirens go off quite often — so this is something they deal with all the time at school, and we're all going to head down to the basement underneath the school, which is the safest place to be. all the teachers are on the phones, trying to get some more information to find out what's happening. speaks ukrainian.

playing games, dancing, carrying on with your lessons. there's a lot here in this shelter to keep your mind off the air raid warning. and this is one school. the air raid alert we heard went off in villages, towns and cities across ukraine. an entire country's children sheltering at the same time. then, after a few hours below ground, we're told the danger is over, and everyone can return to their classrooms. everything goes back to normal. but this war, the biggest in europe since world war ii, is now a year old. a year since russian president vladimir putin ordered his armies to invade ukraine. a year of air attacks, of destroyed homes, of uncertainty

for the future. a year waiting for a normal childhood to begin again. i'm here in ukraine to hear the children's story, their own thoughts in their own words about a year of war. viola is 13. she tells me she loves playing the piano in her spare time. when the war started, her village was taken over by the russian army. viola wants to share what's happened to her and herfamily. translation: this i is my house near kyiv. every morning i help mama do the cleaning and shopping before i walk to school.

we first heard them talking about war on tv. i was worried, but we didn't think it would happen to us. then, early one morning, when the sky was still dark, our lives changed forever. danger crept into our village. the russian military were coming. mum and dad covered the windows with blankets as we hid indoors. the sound of gunfire rang all day long. in the moments of silence, i peeked behind the curtains to have a look outside. mama took pictures of the russian soldiers and sent them to friends who forwarded them to the ukrainian military. shortly afterwards, the russians were attacked by our artillery. mama began to worry the russians would find out what we did. then one night, we felt a huge explosion. it lit up my bedroom, shaking the house and waking us up.

smoke filled our kitchen where mama was standing. she was trying to put out the flames. she told us to leave. i grabbed my sister and we ran. we didn't even have time to look back at our house, and we didn't know where we were going, and so we kept running through other people's gardens, the sound of bullets whistling near our feet. we kept moving. that's when we found help. a man was helping families to evacuate, so we climbed into his car and drove as fast as we could out of the village. but then his car ran out of electricity. we were stuck on the road. i saw cars on fire, people lying inside them. what was going to happen to us? it was chaos. our driver stopped another car fleeing the village.

they were driving to another city. the car was crowded with nine of us packed inside. but we made it. we survived. when the fighting in our village stopped, we drove back home. i remember seeing our house for the first time. it was completely destroyed. but ella was still there, looked after by a neighbour. she reminds us of how normal our lives used to be. viola's invited me to come and see where her home once stood. but the memories of what happened here are hard for her to relive. it's a lot for viola to come back here and to look at what's left of her house, and there's very little left. and it's deeply upsetting for her too. but at the same time, she wants to share her story

with us, to tell the world what's happened to her and lots of other children here in ukraine. but it really... it isn't easy. so, this is where you had to...to run, to run away? you went here? viola and her family still spend time here trying to imagine what life will be like when their home is rebuilt. but all they can do for now is wait.

an hour away, we meet dimitri. his town was also occupied by russian soldiers. when the fighting started here, his family and their neighbours hid in garages on the edge of their town, hoping they might be safer. but russian shelling began. a young boy and his father in the garage next door were killed. dimitri's family had to run to find somewhere else to hide.

on their way, the family saw that this building, their home, had also been hit. they made their way to a basement in a nearby preschool building where they stayed, on and off, for two months, sharing the space with 270 others. the conditions were difficult. food and clean water were limited.

the community here are at constant risk of attacks from the air, and the shelter still has to be used regularly.

but the teachers here have made it a more comfortable place for children to stay. dimitri, though, is looking forward to a time when he no longer needs to come down here. the family are now living with dimitri's grandma close by. he tells me rockets and missiles constantly fly over their apartment. but for now, the family are safer and moving forward as best they can. west of kyiv, two hours by car, is the city of zhytomyr. the skies are loud here too.

many travelling away from the fighting that's still going on in the east passed through here. missiles have made their mark, one hitting here. this was once the city's main school. it's thought that more than 5 million children, just like those who attended here, have had their education disrupted because of the war. it's very sad honestly because this place used to be my second home for a long period of time. i'm getting really upset every time i'm coming here and see my school in such condition. it's so difficult for me because i really like this school and the school means a lot for me.

for now, the children who attended here are studying in other buildings. and just a few roads away, after months of having lessons online, friends have just been reunited. the community here managed to transform this old building. the corridors are filled with joy.

do you feel happy now you can see all your friends? how does it make you feel? being together again is making the students smile, and teachers are trying hard to help the children forget about the war for a moment. laughter. bell chimes. they've changed a few things like the sound of the school bell. loud noises could sound like a siren, so instead, they play music.

while there's no sirens and it's time to have a break, everyone's enjoying lunch. but for millions of other children in ukraine, something as ordinary as being in school with your friends isn't possible.

either ongoing fighting or school buildings being destroyed means online lessons only, and for others, even that's impossible — there is no school of any sort. back near kyiv, i'm in a town that's become known all around the world because of the awful things that happened here. when the war began, president putin's plan was to use the russian army to quickly take over kyiv, remove the ukrainian government and put his own people in charge. putin's plan failed. ukraine's army first stopped the russian military and then pushed them back from here. and when the russians were forced out, then it became clear that something terrible happened right here. yegor was born in bucha.

he lives in this apartment with his mum. the town is usually quiet. there's a school, a high street and a few shops. this is the view from his house now — a reminder of what happened in march last year. yegor showed me a video of how much of his hometown was destroyed. and you can still kind of make out the fire on the trees, the fences have burnt...

it's thought russian soldiers killed more than 400 people in bucha. in war, there are rules. one of the most important is that civilians — soldiers and not fighting — are protected. russian forces are accused of deliberately killing civilians here, which is a war crime. the russian government says that the ukrainian authorities faked what happened, but that claim cannot

be backed up with any facts. instead, journalists and international lawyers trained to investigate war crimes found evidence that matched what the people of bucha say took place. the people of this town witnessed utter devastation and a lot of suffering too. but there are signs of hope. homes are being built again and yegor�*s really happy about that. the war leaves little opportunity for children to have a normal

childhood and do all the things they enjoy. this group has been set up to help them relax. it's a place they can talk, play and create. all the children here... laughs ..are having a good time. they're smiling, they're relaxed, and it's not something that they experience very often. because of everything that's going on at the moment, lots of them have dads and mums who are out fighting or on the front line, and this is a chance for them to relax, to be happy, to be a kid, and it's so lovely to see. laughter.

nobody knows what the long—term impact on children will be, and nobody knows when this war is going to end. but what's clear is that the children i've met, despite everything, have hope and a determination to carry on. i've come back to visit viola. she and her family wanted to show me where they're living now — a temporary home with many others whose houses were also destroyed. wow, look at this! each family has a warm room to sleep in and store what belongings they have. what do you miss the

most from your home? you said you don't want anyone else to experience what you went through. why do you say that? viola may not be able

to play the piano at home, but she can play at church.

hello there. plenty of spring flowers to try and brighten up our weekend, but if you look to the skies, it's all about shades of grey, this weekend. a lot of cloud around, particularly out to the west. a few breaks here and there, but there's also a scattering of nuisance showers across north and east—facing coasts in particular. in terms of the feel of the weather, 6 to 9 degrees, so on the chilly side with those grey skies, but nowhere near as cold as it's going to get. the breeze will freshen a little through the night and that could drive in more showers across exposed coasts and a frequent rash starts to develop across the north of scotland, turning increasingly wintry to the tops of the mountains here. on the whole, we keep the cloud, but we can't rule out if there are a few breaks, it could be a little touch of light frost here and there.

so it's a chilly start to sunday morning. again, a largely grey one. there'll be plenty of showers on exposed coasts and more widespread showers start to develop across the far north of scotland. once again, those temperatures will sit between six and eight or nine degrees. indications of the cold air, though, starting to arrive into the northern isles. yes, from sunday night into monday morning, it's going to turn increasingly cold and windy, which means that we're also going to increase the risk of some snow and some ice around. and that's because we've got arctic air starting to push down from the north. the high pressure that's dominated is starting to slip away from the uk. and we've got this weather front arriving. it's a cold front introducing this cold air behind. so to start with, it'll be rain as it pushes its way steadily south. and then we will see a frequent rash of showers into northern scotland and potentially, northeast england. here, temperatures 4 to 6 degrees. ahead of it on monday, still in that milder air, so we might see nine or ten. the remnants of that

front eases away during the early hours of tuesday. behind, tuesday will be a case of sunny spells and scattered showers, showers most frequent along the north and east coasts. and yes, they could be wintry in nature. and accompanied by a brisk northerly wind, it's going to feel more like close to freezing. that is going to be quite a shock to the system. so if you've got outdoor plans next week, it's certainly worth keeping abreast of the weather story, particularly monday into tuesday, where snow and ice could be an issue across north, east and east scotland, and northeast england.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. our top stories... the head of russia's wagner group claims its forces now surround most of bakhmut — the eastern ukrainian city that's been the focus of intense fighting. we've practically surrounded bakhmut. only one route out of the city remains. if earlier we were fighting against the professional army, now we are increasingly seeing old people and children. police in australia say they've made one of their biggest ever drug busts, seizing cocaine worth $1 billion us dollars. and the ceremony injerusalem to consecrate the oil that will be used to anoint king charles during his coronation in may.