..some helped by corrupt officials. we've been given exclusive access to the border forces in ukraine and moldova. we meet some of the men risking it all to leave... ..and those trying to stop them. we investigate how many are escaping and why they don't want to fight.

it's the start of the daily patrol along ukraine's border with romania. vladyslav is a 22—year—old lieutenant in ukraine's border service. the border runs mostly along a river and a mountain range, making it difficult to protect.

the border guards film their operations. these young men were arrested just metres from romania's border. it's illegal for men under 60 to leave without a valid exemption from military service. those caught trying to do so face up to eight years injail.

dog barks since the start of the war over 4,000 men have been stopped trying to cross into romania. elsewhere, the numbers are higher.

dinu is a senior officer with the moldovan border police. on average, 22 ukrainian men a day are making it out over this 1,200km border. this man hasjust been found... ..and taken to the local border police station. yevgeny is 37 and a construction worker from kyiv. it's been six months

since he saw his family. he says he left because he was struggling to survive. yevgeny says he's avoided the draft. men like him with no fighting experience haven't been called up yet.

most men like yevgeny attempt the journey at night. a thermal camera is used to spot them. in this recent footage, the men seem to know how to dodge the border patrols.

ukraine's border with moldova has become the most popular illegal way out. since the war, over 11,000 men have used this route. sneaking across the border is not the only way to escape the war. with the right paperwork, you can get an exemption from military service. we heard that some men are paying substantial bribes to get their hands

on these documents. to find out how this works, we asked a localjournalist to pretend to be a man who wants to leave. got my cover story. my name is andrei, i'm 29 years old and i'm looking to leave ukraine as soon as possible. i want to see and visit my family in germany. a quick search reveals at least six groups offering help on the messaging app telegram. they have a lot of reviews from other people who leave the country with their services. so i'm going to write to them.

they immediately send you all their options, how to leave the country. one of the most popular is a medical exemption, known as a white ticket. it means that they can write there that they have some disease, or some medical problems. and i cannot serve in the army until the end of my life. and also, with this document, you can leave the country and come back any time. officials at these centres work closely with military doctors to decide who can get a medical exemption. they sent me an example of this white ticket, it's for me to document. it looks real. probably, they know somebody at that office, so this is corruption.

it seems increasing demand for white tickets is pushing up prices. corrupt officials are also demanding higher bribes. they're more worried this is a dangerous job for them. in those groups, there is quite a lot of men who want to leave, so i think this business is quite busy. recently, the government tried to crack down on this booming business by sacking those in charge of military recruitment.

since the start of the war, nearly 7,000 men have been arrested for using fraudulent paperwork, including white tickets. men who are sick or disabled say getting an exemption through the official channels isn't easy. in a refugee centre in moldova, we meet erik, who has arrived on foot from ukraine.

but erik says his troubles began some time before when he became critically ill. erik says he wouldn't survive in the army. when the war broke out, he desperately tried to apply for a white ticket, but wasn't successful.

erik is a musician. fearful of the call—up, he says music helped him to cope. he's hoping to go to the us, where his family is.

400km away in southern ukraine, vladyslav is back on shift, on the banks of the tisza river.

crossing it is one of the most popular ways out of ukraine, but smugglers don't always warn people about how dangerous it is. these men were caught trying to swim across.

since february last year, 19 bodies have been recovered here. it isn't known how many people have died trying to leave ukraine. in moldova, yevgeny is being escorted to the nearest immigration centre. ukrainian men running from the war have the right to claim asylum in neighbouring countries. low chatter

next, he will need to go to the capital, to proceed with his asylum claim. yevgeny is one of around 20,000 ukrainian men who crossed illegally and claimed asylum in neighbouring states. yevgeny hopes it won't be long

before he's reunited with his family in the uk. we lost touch with him. he plays soft tune but we did hearfrom erik. it's seven months since he left ukraine.

ukraine does not release official figures on the size

of its army, but the country's defence minister claims it has 800,000 troops. our investigation shows that more than 40,000 ukrainian men have tried to get out or succeeded in leaving the country illegally. we put these findings to a senior politician from the ruling party, fedir venislavskyi. man speaks ukrainian he acknowledged there is corruption in the issuing of exemption papers. he says the number of men leaving is having no impact on the war effort.

but the end of the conflict with russia is nowhere in sight. as this turns into a war of attrition, ukraine will need all the soldiers it can get. hello. the cold and crisp weather is here to stay — for a little while, at least. we might see the temperatures rise temporarily through the course of sunday into monday but i think on the whole, the next 7—10 days below average for the time of the year.

so, here's the forecast, then, and starting with sunday, you can see the blue colours there — that's the cold air over us — but temporarily, as i said, a little bit of mild air sneaks in with this weather system here. so, early on sunday, a weather front approaches. thicker cloud and some outbreaks of rain. so, it does mean that all of that crisp sunshine we will have had on saturday will be replaced with the cloudier skies and slightly milder conditions out towards the west. so ten in belfast, the western fringes of wales, maybe into double figures, 13 in plymouth, but across the rest of the country it's still pretty cold — say, 6—9 degrees celsius. and then, through sunday into monday, that low pressure moves across the uk so, yes, some outbreaks of rain heading our way and actually, not a particularly pleasant monday on the way at all across england and wales with the thick cloud and some outbreaks of rain. but notice as the centre of this low here pulls away on the western side of it, we've got the winds returning from the north again so, i think once again, we'll see

those temperatures dropping nationwide. and then monday night into tuesday, that low pulls away into more central parts of europe. we're in between weather systems once again and the cold air is over us. i mean, it's not desperately cold air. it can, of course, get a lot colder in our climate this time of the year, but it's certainly chilly enough and after that really mild autumn we've had, we are feeling the effects, for sure — at least, relatively speaking. so, some maybe wintry showers across the north and the north—east of scotland on tuesday, carried by that northerly breeze. single—figure temperatures pretty much across the board after a frosty start on tuesday. and then, tuesday into wednesday, again, another little area of low pressure sneaks in. perhaps increasing amounts of cloud. perhaps the temperatures will pick up a little bit. so, each time we see areas of low pressure coming in, they cut off the supply of colder air and those temperatures nudge back up, but only by a fraction, so we're not really seeing that push of particularly mild weather from the south or the south—west — it's either coming in from

the north or slightly north of west, if you know what i mean. and then, wednesday into thursday, yes, low pressure is sitting on top of us. that does mean rather a lot of cloud. there is even just the chance of a little bit of wintriness across the welsh hills, maybe salisbury plain. i mean, this is really detail here now into thursday and it could change. in fact, these blobs of blue and even the wintriness will be probably in different locations as the next computer model runs are released. so, the outlook, then, shows this pressure pattern, the isobars pointing in from north to south. that is an indication of where our air�*s going to be coming from and it does look as though it'll be generally coming in from the north, so those temperatures will remain on the cold side. so, here's an outlook for end

of next week and even into the following weekend there. you can see staying on the cold side in the south, around five degrees celsius and, actually, about the same further north, too. that's it for me. bye— bye.

live from washington. this is bbc news. the faces of israeli women and children on their way home after a second group of hostages is released. some havejust arrived here, at a hospital in tel aviv. celebrations in the west bank, as palestinian prisoners held in israeli jails are freed. and for those hostages released on friday, the reunions they'd been waiting for.

hello. i'm carl nasman. after 50 days in captivity, a second group of hostages — six women and seven children — have been released from gaza. some of them have just arrived at this hospital in tel aviv. these pictures from outside the sheba medical center. they had been coming in over the past half hour or so. among the hostages is irish—israeli emily hand. she's 9—years—old and was initially thought to have been among those killed in the attack on kibbutz be�*eri on october 7. she was at a sleepover at a friend's house on the kibbutz when she was abducted without any family. also freed, 12—year—old hila rotem. she was taken captive with her mother, raya rotem, who remains a hostage in gaza. freed as well, an accountant shiri weiss, aged 53, and her 18—year—old daughter, noga weiss, were also

released, along with 21—year—old maya regev. and adi shoham aged 38,