Oleksandra and her four rescue dogs have been sheltering in the bathroom of her flat in Kharkiv since the shelling began. “When I heard the first explosions, I ran out of the house to get my dogs from their enclosures outside. People were panicking, abandoning their cars. I was so scared,” she says. The 25-year-old has been speaking regularly to her mother, who lives in Moscow. But in these conversations, and even after sending videos from her heavily bombarded hometown, Oleksandra is unable to convince her mother about the danger she is in. “I didn’t want to scare my parents,

At Vaalimaa, Finland’s border crossing with Russia – 120 miles east of Helsinki – buses and cars stop for passport and customs checks. These aren’t Ukrainians, they’re Russians, and although the flow isn’t heavy, it is constant. Some people are anxious to get out of Russia because there has been a persistent rumour that President Vladimir Putin’s government might soon introduce martial law to deal with demonstrations against the invasion of Ukraine. With flights to Europe halted, the only way out of the country is by car – crossing this border – or by train. We spoke to one young

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told the BBC that he is convinced Ukraine can win its war with Russia. He could not say how long the conflict would last, but insisted that Ukraine’s defeat was not inevitable. Mr Blinken praised the “extraordinary resilience” of the Ukrainian people. “If it’s the intention of Moscow to try somehow to topple the government and install its own puppet regime, 45 million Ukrainians are going to reject that one way or the other,” he said. The war has already not gone as Russian President Vladimir Putin might have planned, he added. Stiff