voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. russia's war on ukraine has transformed childhood. it's injured and killed almost 2,000 children. but the suffering isn't only physical.

there is fear, loss and uncertainty right across the country. do you think that there's enough help for all the children who need it? as the attacks on ukraine intensify, how do the children cope growing up underfire? at 12 years old, lera has been learning to walk again, after the blast that shattered one of her legs and burned the other very badly. passing over the holes left by shrapnel...

..lera points out where she and herfriend, kseniya, came that morning to sell bracelets they'd made themselves. she didn't hear the air—raid siren. missile whooshes the russian missile smashed right into the heart of chernihiv. it was a hot holiday weekend and the streets were crowded. seven people were killed that day, including a child, and dozens were injured.

but the missile exploded just metres away from here... ..its shards slicing into buildings and people all around.

when russian troops invaded ukraine in 2022, they never took chernihiv — but they did occupy much of this northern region. the ruins are a reminder of the weeks when the city was under siege and under constant fire. the russians were eventually forced to retreat, and life slowly returned to the streets. then, last august, the city theatre hosted a drone exhibition... ..and russia attacked. when you look at the destruction here, the damage to this theatre, it really drives home, yet again, just how dangerous life is in ukraine. and the fact that whatever russia is aiming at, when it fires its missiles at city centres like this,

so often it is civilians and children who are injured and killed. 500km east is kharkiv, very close to the russian border. in 2022, russian troops almost surrounded this city, too, pounding it with shells and missiles — but they never took it. the district of saltivka was closest to russian positions. its apartment blocks were battered for weeks. so, anya and her children are the only people living in this entire building in this... ..middle of this complete destruction.

she said she's just going to come down and open the door to take me up. 0bviously, there's no lift, and they're on the third floor here. the family escaped at the height of the fighting, but they moved back last year because, despite everything, this is home. they've had a new wall put in. the old one had a giant crack after a missile hit the building two floors up. and in the kitchen, anya shows me holes made by shrapnel. angelina is eight, and remembers finding the flat in ruins.

it was during all this that angelina's family fled saltivka, looking for safety. but after a few days, they decided to head back to the basement of their home, and hope for the fighting to stop. in early march, the giant block of flats next door was destroyed by a missile — and angelina was terrified.

the far side of the country is another world. many ukrainians fled to ivano—frankivsk after the full—scale invasion. russian missiles do reach here — but you get a lot more warning. but daniel can't escape the war completely, even here. he's come to collect a special delivery from his dad back in kharkiv. daniel and his mum left

the city before the war, but his father stayed and was drafted into the army. mm... it's a nice present. my dad sent me compass and markers. the two now chat online whenever they can. daniel's dad doesn't want us to show his face. but he's teaching his son to draw, remotely. a family separated by war, keeping things normal when nothing around them is.

air-raid siren when the siren wails here in the west, there's no rush for the bunker. instead, daniel's mum checks an app on her phone. so, erm... it's not dangerous for our region now. the threat is far away from here... ..in the east, like daniel's dad. lera still loves making

jewellery, especially now she's stuck at home, as her leg heals from multiple operations. she's not been to school for months, and she's bored and frustrated, so focusing on something like this is a help. lera lives with her sister, irina, who worries she may be bottling up her feelings, and wonders whether that might all spill out one day.

for lera, this war has been doubly cruel. a few months before she was hurt, her brother died fighting on the front line. sasha was 27. lera and her brother were close but she's barely talked of him since he died. sasha volunteered for the front line. he went missing in action afterjust five months.

recording plays it's the first time lera has heard her brother's voice since he was killed. mm—hm. lera's loss is daniel's greatest fear.

he's now throwing himself into all sorts of things. distraction for a boy uprooted. his mum works hard, too, to channel his energy into something positive. he was very upset, and now it's much better. i tried to find things he loved before, to continue doing these things here. it works. daniel struggled to settle here at first. he thinks other children don't get what he's going through.

at the very start of the war, daniel and his mum fled even further west, joining a giant wave of refugees to europe. they came back, partly because kateryna is a child psychologist, and she saw a huge need for her skills. how serious is the damage, the psychological damage that this war has done to children?

do you think that there's enough help for all the children who need it? angelina's whole neighbourhood is in tatters. this was daniel's home, too. his family don't think it's safe to return yet — but angelina's had no alternative. but russian forces never

stopped attacking kharkiv, and are getting closer again. air-raid siren. angelina sings. angelina dreams of being a singer one day. if vladimir putin hadn't invaded, she'd be here by now — at her neighbourhood school. but the russians don't seem to care what they hit. angelina sings.

angelina's old kindergarten is in ruins, too. it was shut for safety, like all schools in kharkiv, at the start of the war. angelina barely remembers it here. before the invasion, there was covid. that's years of playing alone. isolation is a big issue for ukraine's children. millions are now studying online, like angelina, if they're studying at all. so her mum tries to take her out as much as possible. only in kharkiv, that often means staying underground for safety. angelina now goes to a special

class at a metro station. they call it animal therapy — and she loves it. children laugh. it's notjust the dog. it's the chance to mix with other children and to let off steam like any eight—year—old.

it's clear angelina misses company, most of all. physically, lera is healing. the worst pain has passed. now she's coming to these group therapy sessions. some of the children have lived under occupation, others underfire. they've all known fear and anxiety, like lera has.

lera's been a long time alone with herfears and her frustrations. now she feels ready to step back into the world again.

daniel's been working on his self—confidence, too. he's good at this. he's small for his age, and he got badly bullied at his new school, so now he's at fight class. the trainer, sasha, believes in building up the boys' resilience... ..and sharing their worries, too, if they need to. can you tell me what it feels like when you're wrestling? like you're in a film and you do some, uh...

. .super scenes. you feel like a superhero? yeah. back east, daniel's hometown of kharkiv is a nervous place again. covered in the scars of the first russian assault,

it's braced for another. not far from here, russian troops have crossed the border again. vladimir putin says they're not planning to take kharkiv — but ukraine has learned never to trust him. when the sun goes down over saltivka, the lights don't come on any more. russia has been destroying power plants across this country. angelina has adapted to the blackouts.

some of the pain of this war is visible... ..like lera's limp, or the faces of the soldiers who died defending her city. but some of the battles here are internal. it's the strength all ukraine's children need to draw on in a war that's already taken so much from them, and where the danger is still all around.

hello. it's been a chilly, windy and showery sort of weekend, but thankfully the weather is looking a little bit quieter now in the run up to christmas. so for christmas week then a change to the weather. things are turning milder, less windy than they have been and things looking mostly dry for many of us towards christmas. but we're going to be starting off with that cold air still in the east. milder air is going to be working in through the day on monday. still a few wintry showers,

a little bit of ice first thing monday, i think across parts of north east scotland in particular. but this system is a warm front so it's bringing the milder air. it's also bringing some patchy outbreaks of rain on monday to western areas. these are the sort of temperatures we'll start the day with, two to four degrees for northern and eastern areas, five or six towards the south and west, a little bit colder than that for the more rural spots, particularly where we had the wintry showers. could be some icy stretches in the far north east. we'll keep the sunshine longest across parts of eastern england on monday. the cloud builds from the west, bringing some patchy rain and some hill fog around western coasts and hills. could be a little bit of snow on top of the highest ground for the highlands, scotland, for a time. only about four or five degrees around that east coast, but in the west nine or ten degrees. things are turning a little bit milder as that warmer air moves in from the atlantic. high pressure is going to be building in as we head through to christmas eve on tuesday as well. so that's keeping most places dry. we will see a little bit of patchy rain across the north and northwest of scotland,

perhaps around other western areas a little bit of drizzle here and there. a fairly cloudy picture for many of us on christmas eve. best of any sunshine will be to the east of higher ground. so aberdeenshire, perhaps parts of the welsh marches, seeing a little bit of blue sky here and there. temperatures though, 13, 14, possibly 15 degrees for some of us. so one of the warmest christmas eves on record, i think. and then that mild air stays with us through into christmas day as well. we've got a front just trying to move in towards the northwest. it's going to be quite breezy here, and there'll be some outbreaks of rain across the northwest of scotland i think for christmas day. for most of us it's not going to be a white christmas. more of a grey one, really. mostly dry though, quite a lot of cloud around. again, some breaks in that cloud generally to be found to the east of higher ground. so the likes of yorkshire for instance, around the the east coast of england could see a little bit of brightness developing. top temperatures between 11 to 13 for christmas day, perhaps a degree or so down on christmas eve. but most of us looking dry and settled into boxing day and towards the end of the week too. it's mild, it's cloudy, but it's not going to

be a white christmas. bye— bye.

live from singapore, this is bbc news. syria's new leader says armed groups will be absorbed into the army as some communities express gear for the future tributes have been paid to one of five victims of the christmas market attack in germany. and in his first rally since winning the presidential election, donald trump says he may demand the return of the panama canal to the us.