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With Russian forces withdrawing from some areas of Ukraine, details are emerging of the death and destruction they have left behind. In Borodyanka, 60 km north-west of Kyiv, the main road through the town is lined with destroyed and burnt-out buildings, vehicles and tanks. Olga and Ira lived there and have sent us messages, describing how their homes were bombed. Olga explains how she hid with her children in a cellar, as the Russian tanks arrived.

We also hear from the Â鶹Éç’s Vitaliy Shevchenko, the Russian Editor for Â鶹Éç Monitoring. As well as covering the war for us, he has been trying to get his parents out of Ukraine to safety. We meet his father – an English Professor from Zaporizhzhia, close to the Russian front line – who is now safely in the UK. We bring him together with one of his students, who has stayed at the university.

While governments continue to discuss how best to support Ukraine, we introduce people who have given up their time to help refugees escaping the war. There is a mother who travelled from the UK to Poland, a tech worker from Israel who is helping to organise refugee camps, and a woman co-ordinating transport to help families reach temporary homes.

(Photo: Ukrainian refugees rest after crossing the Ukraine-Poland border, in Medyka, Poland, 7 April, 2022. Credit: Leonhard Foege/Reuters)