voice—over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. vladimir putin is now a wanted man. russia's president has been indicted as a suspected war criminal... chatters happily ..for the forced removal of children from ukrainian territory. air raid siren wails since russia launched its war on ukraine, kyiv says thousands of children have been taken.

translation: it's not only putin who should be put - on trial, it's all the main people for what they did to the children. we've met women forced to travel deep into enemy territory to get their children back. translation: i should never have let him go. | but we didn't know. theyjust took him and that was that. russia claims it was protecting them from danger. speaks russian but we've investigated the ideology that's driving its actions and found new evidence of how the ukrainian children russia takes are treated. i look at them here in this russian—run school, they've got military uniforms and they've got these zs on their sleeves.

the symbol of russia's war on their country. it is the most anxious journey of these mothers�* lives. they're rushing to reach the children they've been separated from for six months. ijoin them on the first stage of their trip. ukrainian women heading for russia to find the children sent to summer camps there and never returned. alla tells me every minute now counts because the children have been told they'll be put in care if their mums don't come for them. translation: the children started calling us in panic. i and russia is huge. so where would we have

looked for them? train horn hoots so this is the start of a gruelling trip across thousands of miles that will take the women deep into the country that's declared war on them. alla shows me the video her son danila sent from his summer camp in crimea. he's 13 and he went there in october when his own city was occupied. but when her son was liberated, the russians refused to send the children back. so alla has felt like a part of herself is missing for six months. translation: i should never have let him go. | but we didn't know. theyjust took him and that was that. my son had seen explosions. i wanted him to relax from the war. and then this happened. ijust hope we make it in time. train horn blares

alla had been struggling alone to know how to reach her son safely. but in kyiv, she was met by the group that's helped organise this whole trip... ..for alla and dozens like her. the group has just arrived in kyiv, but this isjust the very first stage of an extremely long and arduous journey to try and get their children back. kherson is now cut off from crimea by the fighting. so the women have to make an enormous detour. first to kyiv from kherson, then from here, they'll head for poland before crossing into belarus, which is russia's big ally in this war.

it's then a flight to moscow and a 24—hour drive south to the children's camp. thousands of miles to end up a short distance from home. these days, kherson is under russian attack. its forces have been taking their revenge on the city since they were forced to retreat last year, ending months of occupation. daily life now brings terrible danger here. and yet moscow had proclaimed this part of the russian world. patriotic singing that's when ukrainian children were subjected to this... russian anthem plays ..the anthem of an occupying force.

the video from a summer camp was posted by proud pro—russian officials. but look more closely at their faces and what happens when the camera spots the girl with her ears covered. alla is no supporter of russia. but when she sent danila to that same summer camp, she'd begun to doubt kherson would ever be freed. she never thought her child would be stuck on the other side of a front line. translation: we started getting calls saying they wouldn't - bring the children back. they said, "if you want them, come and get them". i ran to the school headmaster for help. i wrote to the local administration, but they did nothing. they said they would only bring the children back when kherson was russia again. that's when save ukraine stepped in. they've done all the paperwork and the permissions that russia demands.

now they're preparing the women for how their children may have been affected... ..by six months living under russian rules. it was like soft, soft power. and step by step, we russify all of these children. it's about months. it's not about one day to threaten them and to convert them to be russian. no. it's like every day you will sing our songs, we will feed you, we will tell you bad things about ukraine. yeah. and if your parents will not take you back, you will stay in russia. you will be russian children. for alla, there's time for a last call home to a family waiting and worrying.

translation: i worry every single day that something i could go wrong. it gnaws away at me. and it will do until i have my son back next to me. i worry i won't make it in time. and i will be worried until we're home and i can breathe again. but i can't yet. engine rumbles this is as far as we can go with alla. once they leave kyiv, the women will turn off their phones for security. at the border, they'll invent cover stories about their trip, scared of being turned back.

the stress will be enormous. a few days after we filmed olga setting off to get her granddaughters, her heart gave out. she died in russia by the side of a road. air raid sounds this is a war that's created all sorts of victims, brought all sorts of pain. but it's the fate of ukraine's missing children that's driven the international criminal court to issue its first arrest warrants. tannoy announcement in russian. vladimir vladimirovich putin! and that's why he is now a wanted man. vladimir putin must have thought his war would be swift and glorious. instead, it's got him indicted for the illegal deportation of ukrainian children.

and it's been carried out in plain sight. i checked the channel of russia's children's ombudswoman. maria lvova—belova is now a suspected war criminal, too. she's posted all sorts of videos like this where she's removing children from occupied parts of ukraine, delivering them to russian families. vladimir putin changed the law to make it easier to adopt them. she's even adopted a boy from mariupol herself. this is philip, and he's become a russian citizen. we did ask the ombudswoman for an interview twice, but she didn't reply. online, though, she paints all of this as if russia is saving children from danger.

the thing is, i've carried on scrolling through this account and i've looked at all of the posts, and it becomes clear very quickly that this is not a humanitarian mission, it's an ideological one. because, for example, if you look at this video that the ombudswoman has posted just here. speaks russian. she's talking about how russia is protecting the people of eastern and southern ukraine from the nazis there. and she says that these are our people. they're all part of one big family. and that's why russia, she says, can't leave those children. basically, she's saying they're russian children. ukraine says more than 19,000 children have been taken to russia, though its lists aren't public. we don't know how many have been adopted. we do know that many were taken from ukrainian special schools and children's homes.

last september, sasha was taken from his school in north—eastern ukraine, removed without a word to his family. forced separation would be upsetting for any child but sasha has special needs, and for someone so vulnerable, it was deeply unsettling. speaks ukrainian his mum had to travel thousands of miles to get him back deep into occupied territory. and tetyana has new proof of how ukrainian children are treated there. tetyana's just shown me this photograph. and these kids here are classmates of sasha, of her son. and look at them here in this russian—run school. they've got military uniforms and they've got these zs on their sleeves.

these are the symbols of russia's war on their country. sasha has identified three children in these pictures. the writing on the classroom wall shows the ukrainians were dressed to celebrate a russian military holiday. sasha clearly remembers the day they were taken, when russian soldiers in balaclavas came to their school with guns. they loaded him and 12 other children onto buses and drove off with them. translation: to be honest, it was pretty scary. _ i didn't know where they were taking us. sasha then had no contact with his mum for six weeks. when i ask how hard that was... translation: yes... yes, to be honest, it's too

distressing to even remember. the teenager is now safe with his mum in germany. they're living as refugees because their city is being pounded by russia's military. tetyana remembers how frantic she was when sasha disappeared and the moment she was finally told he was at a special school in occupied eastern ukraine and she could call him. translation: he cried into the phone. - it was the first time we'd spoken in six weeks. he was happy to hear me, of course, but he really cried. he wanted to come home. the children had been told their homes had gone, that everything had been destroyed. and sasha was afraid

we were gone, too. sasha's town is now under attack by russian forces. ukraine retook kupiansk in september, ending almost seven months of occupation. but the russians didn't retreat far. and sasha's school is now in ruins, too. the russian missiles landed a few weeks after he left here. the pictures were filmed by a teacher. mykola showed them to me in kyiv, where he and his family have now moved for safety. he told me how he'd seen the russian soldiers take sasha and the other children from the school but he'd been powerless to stop them. translation: they were all in identical camouflage - and body armour, with good weapons. they had balaclavas on, so you could only

see their eyes. it only took them ten minutes to gather everyone together. they weren't talking. all they said was, "quick, quick, quick!" ijust had a chance to ask where they were taking the kids and to say, "let me go with them" but they said "no. "go home. "because if you leave, you won't be coming back." i put to him what russia says — that in cases like this, it's just taking children to safety. i lived under occupation, so i know the difference between what the russians say and what i see for myself outside of my own window. the two are totally different. there was no reason to evacuate back then. it wasn't like now, when everyone's leaving. this was abduction. they just took the children.

sasha has always been withdrawn but tetyana says he's even quieter these days. he's told his family the children were banned from even mentioning ukraine or speaking their own language. so, i asked tetyana what she thinks about the arrest warrant issued for russia's president. translation: it's not only putin who should be put - on trial — it's all the main people, the commanders, all of them for what they did to the children. what right did they have? they knew it was impossible for us to get them back and they didn't care. phone dial tone i called the woman in charge of the school where sasha was taken using a russian number, so there was a chance she'd pick up.

speaks russian we know that five of sasha's classmates are still stuck there. continues speaking russian but i wanted to know about that z mark — the ukrainian children dressed as russian soldiers. replies in russian "so what if they were? the school director shot back. "what kind of question is that?" soon after, the line cut out. dead tone beeps eight days after alla and the other mothers left kyiv, we headed north to wait for their return, past reminders of how war has changed even the most remote corners of this country. i'd already seen the big reunion in crimea at the summer camp.

russian tv cameras were brought in to capture the moment. for alla and her son, the tears, the emotion are real, but the rest is twisted. the reporter claims ukraine did nothing to help these mums — which isn't true — and that russia protected their children. but it was russia's invasion of ukraine that separated them and russian officials who did nothing to get them home. now, the children were about to cross the border, the final stretch of their long journey home, and they had to make this part on foot. so, after about three hours being questioned at the ukrainian border, the first groups are just coming through.

i can see some of the women and their children waving as they cross the border, finally. dobryden! six months apart and then days of travel to get back here. danila had been scared he wouldn't see his mum again, but alla made it. and the stories of their traumatic trip begin to spill out between the welcome hugs. translation: they held us i for 14 hours at moscow airport. they kept us like cattle, separate from everyone else. 14 hours being questioned with no water, nothing. the women were asked about ukraine's military movements, but they had nothing to tell. well, alla is finally back but clearly exhausted and yet, ijust heard her say that she was so happy the moment she took her first step back on ukrainian soil again.

the children say they were treated 0k in crimea, but as russians. they'd get lines if they refused to sing the anthem and they confirm what they were told would happen had their mums not come for them. "they said we'd be adopted," this girl says, so alla's relief at her reunion is immense. translation: that moment when we met makes up - for everything we had to go through. as soon as i saw my child running towards me in tears, everything, all the struggle, it was all worth it. i asked danylo what he felt. translation: i don't know. it was just brilliant. he had worried it might never happen. they told us they'd only take us home from camp when the war

ended, when kherson was russian. these children told me others were still stuck at the summer camps because russia makes it so hard to return them. 31 made it back on this trip. including sanya, who had been separated from her mum for seven months. translation: we ran up to her. we were so happy. my sister even burst into tears from happiness. now, i just want to see everyone, the dogs, to hug everyone, and that's it. those returning are just a tiny handful of the total ukraine's government has recorded as missing. even after vladimir putin was indicted for their removal

to russia as a suspected war criminal. hello, there. 0urfine, dry run of weather continued on monday. plenty of sunshine out west, bit more cloud in the east, and that created some cooler air that then flowed across the uk, hence the lower temperatures that we had — for example, london going from 23 on sunday to 18 for a high on monday. the highest temperatures out west, 2a celsius, warm in the sunshine. we'll see some changes

in the weather picture, though, over the next few days, and it's all down to storm oscar that's bringing torrential rain to madeira. some strong gusts of wind there, as well. oscar itself doesn't actually make it to the uk — it stays to the southwest — but it will be transporting some much warmer air our way. humidity levels rising, as will the temperatures through the weekend, mid—to—high 20s. but it won't be dry everywhere, there will be some fairly hefty thundery showers around, as well, to watch out for — something that gardeners might want, actually, given how dry the weather's been over the last few weeks. now, at the moment, we're seeing cloud come back in off the north sea, affecting central and eastern scotland, central and eastern england, eastern parts of wales, too. and so, for these areas, we start the day tuesday with a lot of cloud that cool breeze with us, notable again first thing in the morning. out west, sunshine from the word go once again. now, where you start cloudy, that cloud will probably get burned back towards those north sea coasts by the time we get to the afternoon, so most areas will brighten up,

but there could be some areas in the east. there the cloud loiters, the onshore winds continue to blow, it'll feel quite cool, 111—15 celsius — and that is a feature of the weather we've seen so far this month. for example, in holbeach in lincolnshire, the average forjune's 19 celsius — we'll be nowhere near that so far this month, on account of often cloudy weather we've seen, and often those chilly northeasterly winds. and another feature of the weather we've got at the moment is some of you will see quite high levels of pollen — and it's grass pollen we have at the moment — so if you're allergic to that, you might find it being a bit sneezy on tuesday. wednesday, probably less in the way of cloud around. what little cloud there is could loiter across some english eastern coasts, but otherwise more sunshine, and so probably temperatures a little bit higher, 2a, maybe 25 out west. and over the next few days, more of the same — it's really into the weekend that we see those temperatures rise, along with the humidity, and we'll probably start to see showers and thunderstorms

break out, as well.