it s ukraine s third biggest city, and major seaport and transport hub. russian ships have become more active on the black sea, ready to attack. and people are preparing. andrew harding reports from there. on ukraine s black sea coast, they re getting ready for the russians. filling sandbags. ..and blocking the streets of odesa, an ancient port city once attacked by lenin, then by hitler, now braced for putin s invasion. some here cling to a sense of normality. of course the war will come, with all its death and suffering, and for what? asks 77 year old alexander. others are already facing immediate, impossible decisions. in odesa s main orphanage,
and a granddaughter are fighting for ukraine. quentin sommerville, bbc news, kharkiv in eastern ukraine. people are escaping from the beseiged city of mariupol, which is surrounded by russian forces. over 300,000 people are thought to be still trapped in the city some were sheltering in the basement of a theatre that came under attack on wednesday. more from our correspondent, orla guerin. fire and destruction at the theatre in mariupol. ukraine accuses russia of dropping a bomb on this cultural landmark turned shelter for terrified civilians. this satellite image shows the russian word for children clearly marked on the ground. it didn t protect them from russianjets. in the darkness a week ago,
it s a very personal story for me, as well and as for a lot of actors and musicians who sang there. it s even more devastating to know that this place actually was a shelter for more than a thousand people, including children. despite the all too visible devastation in mariupol, russia claims that it does not bomb cities and did not bomb the theatre. officials in kyiv say russia is carrying out a genocide. the intention of russian aggressors is to destroy mariupol to the ground. but the main thing, and the main. ..tragedy that they are losing other people. we will rebuild ukraine. but we will not, you know, we cannot bring back our people. they have died.
minister has said and the president has said that they are ready to be the venue to hold talks between the president, between the two presidents. and indeed we heard from john simpson s report that turkey underlined that some of these decisions can be left to negotiators or even foreign ministers who have met in the last few weeks, they have to be presence. on both of them have said they are ready to meet but that has to be prepared. so it is important details from john simpson from what the turks say that they are managing to achieve along with the other mediation efforts. so if thatis the other mediation efforts. so if that is one element of the diplomacy, next if you can help me with the military equation. with talk to the last few weeks about the amount of military aid of the west is trying to supply to ukraine. of course there is a difference between promising aid and actually getting that weaponry into the theatre of war. to what degree do we think this assistance is genuinely be
ukraine s president zelensky has said as much just the other day. other demands which mr putin is making include denazification clause, which, though offensive to mr zelensky seems easy enough to accept, according to the turkish side. and there are undertakings as well to protect the russian language. but that is where the easy part ends. mr putin is also demanding parts of eastern ukraine and he wants ukraine s acceptance that crimea, which russia seized in 2014, is now a permanent part of russia. this, president putin said, can only be sorted out face to face with his ukrainian opponent, president zelensky, who has already said he s willing to talk. but the turkish side thinks it could be weeks before there is an agreement. i asked mr kalin how mr putin had sounded? was he excitable