what does it take to be a female sniper in a modern war? gunshot what motivates a woman to take up arms? if it will not be for me a target, i will be a target for them. the battle against sexism and propaganda on the front line... they ask me, am i a wife of some commander or am i a cook? ..and the challenges they face on their return. how did you tell your daughter that you were going to the front line? i didn't tell my daughter about this. we've travelled to ukraine to meet combat women who've become the faces of the war on both sides of the frontline. russian media call them nazis. ukrainian, heroes. these are the real stories of two female snipers

and a special unit sergeant whojoined the front line in ukraine after the russian invasion. my name is andriana. i am a soldier, servicewoman. a female soldier in the special unit of the ukrainian armed forces. russian media says andriana was killed, describing her death in graphic detail... russian newsreader speaks ..and accusing her of being a ukrainian nazi. we found andriana in ukraine in a hospital. we can't disclose its location for her safety. she's not surprised by the russian news. they published that i am without legs and without hands. yes, and then i was killed by them.

they are professionals in propaganda. andriana, like many other ukrainians, joined a volunteer battalion when russia invaded ukraine back in 2014. she spent a year with the aidar battalion, which, like many of the others, was subsequently subsumed into the official army. cheering, chanting after the ukrainian army liberated kherson, andriana was injured. her unit did not have an armoured military vehicle and were using a civilian car when they drove over a land mine, providing little protection from the blast. despite her injuries and russian reports, she's preparing to return to the front line. i am alive and i will protect my country.

slava ukraini, heroyam slava. this is another story, but a very similar one. hundreds of articles in russian label evgeniya as a ukrainian nazi. here she is, describing herself in her own words.

before the full—scale war, evgeniya ran a jewellery business. shejoined the army when russia invaded in 2022. speaking ukrainian

i was told stories about iryna, a female sniper acting as a commander of an all—male unit. in the middle of the counteroffensive, she's agreed to speak to me from the battlefields in donbas... artillery fires ..but we lost connection. what does it feel to be a woman on the front line? it's hard. do you remember the first moment when you just arrived? they said, "what are you doing here? you must go in kukhnya."

battling through the stereotypes has been a common experience for all combat women we spoke to. gunfire they ask me, am i a wife of some commander or am i a cook? because they even don't think about that i can be a soldier. in 2014, i was a seamstress by the documents. in 2022, i'm not a seamstress by the documents and they try also to protect me against others when they saw that some soldiers from other units said something... ..in sexist manner. in the society - exist strong opinion that girls go to serve in- the army to find your husband.

i've come to visit a charity helping ukrainian frontline women. it's run by female volunteers. when a woman go to the army and want to serve, _ she can be a combat medic. it is ok. she can be a psychologist, even a female sniper, - it is ok. but female in command, it's very rare _ their data is based on confidential personal accounts of service women who share with the volunteers what they are not comfortable discussing with anybody else. that includes abuse they may have suffered, psychological in most cases. we can't even imagine i the scale of this problem because not every soldier, female soldier— wants to talk about this. here is our showroom. sometimes ukrainian female soldiers have to fight for even some basic rights. like to be dressed.

the additional stress ukrainian female fighters have been facing is the uniform and here is why. this is a jacket for ukrainian female soldier. looks quite nice. it's light. it's a summer edition. 0fficial pixel colour. the only problem with it is that, at the moment, it doesn't exist in ukrainian army. and to get one of those, you have to get it from volunteers or to buy it yourself. all other ukrainian female staff has been given male uniform, including underwear. what about the bra? no, they don't get any bra. they don't get any bra. - that's quite stressful. yeah, they get the same that - men get in the army, and men... ..don't get bras.

hanna malya is the deputy defence minister of ukraine, the second woman to hold this position during the war. she explains the female combat uniform is far from the biggest problem the army faces, but they're getting there. with the time frame of soon, vague and unspecified, volunteers have taken it upon themselves to start sewing uniforms for frontline women. at least as much as they can fundraise for. the biggest challenge, they say, is military boots for women of small sizes, and bulletproof vests. despite the lack of specialist equipment, women are not shying away from what being on the front line involves.

suddenly a message arrived from iryna. for her fighting skills, evgeniya earned the nickname �*joan of arc'.

she says despite prejudice against women on the front line, some believe there are certain combat roles where women perform even better than men.

we've managed to get a connection with iryna. she's got a rare moment of peace on the battlefield. she says establishing her authority took strength and resilience. but once she proved herself on the ground, her female leadership style has helped to keep spirits high. she points out to me, though, that the image of female snipers has been heavily glamorised.

when you are on the front line and when you see a target, how do you feel about it? is it a target or a person? it depends on the situation. sometimes it's a person because they are people, but if it will not be for me a target, i will be a target for them. it's like. . . it's enemy. and it's very hard for me to understand that i'm such a person that can't see people when i see a target, but my life during this nine years is about war. iryna is hiding in a vehicle to speak to us in an effort to keep her location secret so as not to become a target herself.

how many injuries did you have? 0h. back. it's...it was hard. like injuries. i have head injuries. i have broken arm without nerve and without muscles. she speaks ukrainian. andriana has suffered so many injuries after driving over a landmine at the front line that it is easier for her to list them for me in ukrainian. but she tries to find some solace in the friendship and support offered by other veterans or, as she calls them, her sisters and brothers in arms. war, they say, doesn't recognise gender, nor does it spare either sex many of its consequences. some soldiers confided in me that they fear severe injuries more than death.

here is why. we've been allowed to join a special smoking space for the injured soldiers here in the military hospital. a rare moment of peace for those who have been through a lot. one more problem they've been telling me about is the cost of rehabilitation programme. it takes thousands of dollars per each soldier per month and can last for over half a year. and each soldier has to fundraise it themselves. the length and cost of mental rehabilitation has not even been estimated yet. while the total death toll in ukraine varies

depending on the source, the most conservative estimate reaches thousands of lives. andriana's phone book has turned into a list of the dead. how many friends did you lose? now i'm not counting because i've lost more than 100 friends. i even don't know how many phone numbers i need to... ..like, to delete or something like that. in the heart of kyiv here on the independence square, there is a tribute to those who lost their lives in the russian invasion of ukraine. each of these flags has a name on it. how many of those killed on the front line are female defenders isn't clear. there is no exact statistics and the impact on the women who survived the front line

is just starting to emerge. how much support they will need long term and how the government and the society are able to meet those needs remains to be seen. but what is clear right now, what we are seeing today might bejust the tip of the iceberg. the exact number of combat casualties cannot be provided due to sensitivities of information during wartime, ukraine's minister of defence told us. but we managed to obtain data suggesting that at least 93 ukrainian servicewomen have been killed in action since the russian invasion. over half a thousand more have been injured. these are findings of the armwomennow charity. the bbc cannot verify them independently. she speaks ukrainian. andriana shows me pictures,

which she doesn't want anybody else to see. photos of her child. the biggest suffering the war has caused to the special unit soldier is the impact it's had on herfamily. she hasn't held her son for over seven months. two days ago, i was talking with him and he said to me that, "mum, remember when we were a family "and when we love each other?" so after two years of absence of me and dad, he tried to remember a period when we were a family and we love each other. and i tried to explain him that we now are family and we love each other, but the period is such. she had taken him to safety in february 2022, before joining the war�*s front line. she wanted to secure him a peacefulfuture in his native country,

not having to risk his life fighting like his parents. they took my best life, i think best years of life when i could be travelling and be happy and build a career and had a dream. they... they even took my dreams because now i don't have them. now they took the childhood of my baby. i'm so sorry about that. no, it's ok. it's not you, it's the russians... ..and only them. evgeniya has an older daughter. she doesn't want to be filmed. just like andriana, evgeniya joined the front line after taking her child to safety. the war separating them

for three months. and then another three months apart with little connection. evgeniya says she didn't want to upset her daughter, but on her return home, joan of arc suddenly faced another battle — or the love of her child. evgeniya says she managed to win her daughter back and even to find love in the middle of the war. but what looks beautiful

on screen came at a high price in reality. evgeniya says she paid for her moments of happiness with increasingly targeted attacks by russian trolls. now she's a wife waiting for her husband to return from the front line. 18 months on from russia's invasion, there are 60,000 women serving in the nation's armed forces, the ukrainian minister of defence told us. including 5,000 female soldiers on the front line. andriana is preparing to return to them to continue her fight. we are losing our best people. they are losing not best russians. if i see ukrainian flag in crimea, in donetsk and luhansk, then maybe... ..i will try to think about them, like about people, but not a target. it's a sentiment

shared by iryna. evgeniya named her baby daughter athena, after the greek goddess of war and wisdom. she doesn't want to return to the front line right now, feeling that her currentjob is looking after her newborn. do you want your daughters tojoin the army when they grow up? no, i don't want. i don't want. my daughter like a princess.

saving children from the war and fighting was the main motivation to join the front line for all female soldiers who we spoke to. evgeniya adds she hopes this war could be stopped by wisdom. if not by russian men in charge, then perhaps by their women.

hello. saturday was certainly a lively day of weather with lots of showers around, some thunderstorms, and... ..a water spout! well, this was spotted just off the coast of sandown in the isle of wight. looks kind of terrifying, doesn't it? now, the day's showers were particularly widespread across all of the uk. the wettest spot was crosby, merseyside — picking up 20 millimetres of rain — but many of us did see downpours through the day, and right now those showers are continuing to fade away — just one or two continuing across parts of wales and western areas of england, as well. but otherwise, most of us have got clear skies at the moment, with temperatures hovering around about ten to 12 degrees celsius as we head into the first part of sunday. now, there will be a change to the weather for northern ireland on sunday — we've got a little bit of rain coming through here —

but for scotland, england, wales, it is another day of sunshine and showers. so a bright start for northern ireland before that band of rain arrives. showers from the word go across wales and western england. but for most of scotland and eastern areas of england, should be a dry start, and heading into the afternoon, the showers will tend to focus along this convergence line across eastern england and maybe eastern scotland, too. now, if you're underneath that, yes, you could see some heavy downpours and some thunderstorms, but away from that, should be dry through the afternoon for a good part of west scotland, wales and western areas of england. and where the sunshine comes out, although temperatures for many will be just below average, it will feel warm in the sunshine. reading/leeds festival continues. now, there is a risk of seeing a shower, i think, as we go through sunday. and for notting hill carnival — yes, here, too, we could see an odd passing shower — although for large parts of the day it should be dry. now, heading into what will be bank holiday monday for a number of you, we've got a weak ridge of high pressure moving in, and what that will do is it will tend to kill the showers off. could still be one or two,

but not as widespread as we've seen over the course of the weekend. so a bit more in the way of dry weather, a bit more in the way of sunshine, and temperatures an odd degree higher — about 19 to 21 or 22 in the warmest spots. beyond that — tuesday, wednesday, thursday — low pressure dominates, really, the weather picture. well, we've been used to that for a good stretch of august, haven't we? and that means showers return from tuesday onwards — some of them turning heavy and thundery with some warm august spells of sunshine in between. heading into september, little change.

live from washington, this is bbc news. three people are dead in florida after what authorities are calling a racially

motivated mass shooting. thousands descend on washington's national mall, marking the 60th anniversary of a civil rights march, where the "i have a dream" speech was delivered by martin luther king jr. and fifa suspends spain's soccer chief over world cup final kiss as coaching staff resign. hello. i'm helena humphrey. we begin in the us state of florida where three people are dead in what authorities are calling a racially motivated mass shooting. we'vejust heard that president biden has been briefed on the situation. the attack took place at a discount store in the city of jacksonville. the city's sheriff says the suspected shooter was a white male in his 20s who turned the gun on himself. he killed two women and one man, all black, with no other injuries reported.

the gunman was carrying a handgun