and southern parts of england. the best of the weather is actually going to be across scotland. some sunny spells and higher temperatures around 17 in glasgow. damp weather across south—western parts, only 11 degrees for example in plymouth. here is a look at bank holiday monday. again a fairly cloudy, dry day with the possibility of a few showers breaking out. a cool day in northern scotland, only ten or 11 in the south, warmer, 18 in london. that's it. for weeks, volodomyr zelensky has been leading from the front as ukraine resists russia's invasion. explosion comforting the war�*s many victims, berating ukraine's enemies... sobs ..and demanding more from her allies. a war that was supposed to last days has now lasted months. russia's advance has stalled, and in places it has been pushed back. applause president zelensky is now lauded as the man of this moment. i think your leadership has been extraordinary. but it wasn't always like this. before the russian attack, questions were being asked as to whether zelensky, a former comedian, really had what it takes to lead ukraine. in 2019, i was very sad, it was like a tragedy. knowing that zelensky could become president of ukraine. i wouldn't say he had policies, he had directions that he wanted to go in, but how to do that, i think he was really trying to learn on the job. hi, jonah, nice to meet you. i first met volodymyr zelensky in january of 2019. he was just a comedian and an actor, a jokey, fun guy, a celebrity, of course, and a real star here in ukraine. it was the start of his political journey and, for me, as the bbc�*s correspondent here in ukraine, a fascinating time. i've had a front row seat as zelensky has gone from a political novice to leading ukraine's fight for survival against russia. happy birthday. thank you. do you know we are almost the same age? i am about to be 41 as well, unfortunately i am not running for president. laughs who knows? nobody knows. 25th of january, 2019, volodymyr zelensky turns a1. it is also the birthday of one of the most extraordinary stories in modern politics. in the centre of kyiv, ukraine's most famous comedian and actor is signing papers to officially become a candid for presidency. none of us in the press pack outside are quite sure whether we're part of a joke that we've not been let into or whether it is something more sincere. as it turns out, for perhaps the first time in his life, zelensky was being serious. but asked to spell out his policies, it all seems a bit vague. 0n ukraine's existential issue, russia, for example, he seemed to think that foreign investors might deter an attack. the campaign was now on, but zelensky was still making tv shows. he laughs we were invited back to the offices of his production company, kvartal 95, for a look behind the scenes. this is where you film your comedy shows? yes, yes, not only comedy shows, everything on tv. we have documentary, dramas, movies, we have two big satire tv shows, you know, political satire. the first stage is where we create the ideas, the guys are sitting here, they are the chiefs of different groups, so we have many scriptwriters, different humour. they speak about their ideas and i am the decision—maker. so you are deciding whether their ideas are funny or not? yes, yes. 0ur audience, especially tv audience, yes, it is a little bit older than, for example, movie audience in feature films. what sort of humour do people like here, if you were to compare it to british humour? we love british humour. he laughs for example, for example. he speaks in ukranian "if compare." if compare in britain, if compare, our people, they more understand, for example, mr bean or benny hill. benny hill! yeah, yeah. really? so you're sort of looking for benny hill—mr bean type jokes, rather than the more kind of surreal monty python type of stuff? yes. he sings for over 25 years, i only thought about him as a comedian, a professional comedian, a good one, quite popular in ukraine, but nothing more. yarema dukh is a political consultant and used to work for zelensky�*s predecessor as president, petro poroshenko. in ukrainian entertainment business, zelensky was a huge star. i think he had like 95%—plus of recognition among average ukrainians, so i would say that everybody knew him. a big star but unashamedly populist, too, and not to the taste of yarolav hrytsak, a historian at lviv�*s catholic university. i would say that most intellectuals would not hear or listen to him that much. it was the much broader public. for what, kind of smuttyjokes? some of them very smutty and some you may say you wouldn't show to your kids under 18, so to say. pop music plays. but he was recognisable, he was nude playing on the piano. and you could imagine with what part of his body. piano music plays he covered a very wide spectrum, so to say, but the point is that some of the jokes were extremely crude. crude? yeah, and therefore his enemies, his opponents, they used to show this clip as proof that he is not capable to conduct any political activities. singing zelensky�*s movies and sketch shows made him famous, but one role more than any other paved the way for his presidential run. he made a tv sitcom where his hero was a simple, young teacher of history who was sick and tired of the politics and decided to go to power, and he became a president. so before he became a real president, he was president on tv, and people liked this image very much. vasily goloborodko, the character zelensky played, was everything that ukraine's real presidents hadn't been up until that point. taras stadnytskyi is a peer of zelensky from ukraine's comedy circuit. when i interviewed zelensky in 2019, he accepted some might vote for him in the hope for getting the fictional president. with the benefit of hindsight, there are those who now wonder whether the servant of the people tv show was created with a real presidential run in mind. applause zelensky�*s political party is called servant of the people, just like the tv show, and 0lena shuliak was the head of it. when she first entered politics, she tells me she hastily watched the series for research purposes. are there many similarities between the real president zelensky and the tv president? applause zelensky�*s sketch shows, broadcast in prime—time, lampooned ukraine's political class. like his predecessor, president poroshenko, who owed his fortune to a sweet shop chain. with zelensky having jumped in the political deep end, the election campaign was unlike anything ukraine had seen before. zelensky held no rallies and his message was entirely communicated through slick videos of him working out and hanging out. it all felt like an extension of his tv shows. it was quite surprising that the man who is on the stage feels like at home, he hardly campaigned, he gave no interviews, it was super hard to see him on some public rallies. he only shoot videos, posted it online, and the rest? it was the work of his team. the less he did, the more popular he became, and when the time came to vote, zelensky was odds on favourite. are you ready to be president? i don't know! the people will decide it in the evening. i'm ready. that night, ukraine's political earthquake was confirmed. zelensky had won with 73% of the vote. so, there we have it, fact will follow fiction. ukraine's television president is now going to become this country's real president. incredible. i think that president poroshenko's team expected to see some other old politicians who they were familiar with, but to be defeated by the guy who literally were joking about you a year before? that's unbearable. for reformers like hanna hopko, the triumph of a completely unknown quantity like zelensky was hard to comprehend. in 2019, i was very sad. it was a tragedy knowing that zelensky could become a president of ukraine, a country which faced russian ongoing aggression. so i was really afraid, chairing the foreign affairs committee, having access to classified information, and just understanding that zelensky could become a president of ukraine. but then i met my spiritual friends and they told me, "hanna, please, let's trust god," because i trust god that he has a special purpose for ukraine in 21st—century, so let's see. in his speech to parliament, immediately after having been sworn in, zelensky focused on what had been his number one election promise — to end the war with russian—backed forces in eastern ukraine. he basically believed — and i believe, he really believed that. that the war was going on because of poroshenko, because poroshenko doesn't want to finish the war, because poroshenko is corrupted, and corruption is... ..war creates very profitable conditions for corruption, so to say. he didn't really see the real cause of the problem is not poroshenko but putin. there were some early signs that this new approach might bearfruit. a prisoner exchange took place, with zelensky on hand at the airport to welcome the captives home. we have to do all the steps to finish this horrible war. do you think this is a new chapter in relations between russia and ukraine? i think this is the first chapter. kurt volker was an american envoy to ukraine, and i travelled with him to the conflict zone in 2018. he says that in zelensky�*s first few months in power, he believed he could do a deal with russia's president. i remember even ourfirst meetings saying "i understand you want peace, but putin doesn't want peace". this is what he wants to do, he is attacking ukraine on purpose. it is not for lack of some formula, he is doing it because he is trying to weaken ukraine. i think he was initially sceptical of that, but i think as he tried to talk with putin, tried to do a couple of prisoner exchanges, i think he came to the view that actually putin is fighting a war that he wants to fight. later that year, the only meeting between zelensky and president putin took place in paris, with the leaders of france and germany acting as chaperones. but the talks were frosty and went nowhere. paris was the endpoint for zelensky�*s attempts to strike a deal. until this war broke out, zelensky�*s time as president was showing some signs of fizzling out. he'd promised a lot and, perhaps understandably, was struggling to deliver on it. his once sky—high ratings in the opinion polls were starting to fall. close allies from the election campaign — zelensky called them his "dream team" — turned on him within a year. comedian brought incompetent people, who now run major government institutions. 0r misrun major government institutions. therefore you cannot achieve results, that's it. so the optimism, the hope of change that existed a year ago, that's over? i would say — look, i would say many things are over, for example promises, by the way, another promise of his was fighting with oligarchs, it's over. i think reforms, the window of opportunity has closed. ruslan ryaboshapka was sacked as attorney—general after just seven months — he says for pushing too hard to tackle corruption and the powerful oligarchs. or perhaps he became tired with all this reform and decided to be in a more comfortable situation. it was bad news and a bad discussions with the so—called reformers, and he chose another option to be, like in warm bath. you are saying effectively he chose the side of the oligarchs over the side of the reformers? absolutely, it looks like that. eventually zelensky did try and take some targeted measures against particular oligarchs. but his critics saw it as too little, too late. zelensky was too timid, then he passed this anti—oligarch law that targeted individuals rather than changing the structure of the system, and that was perceived as unfair by many of them, and so it never really got off the ground. 0n the international stage, zelensky had to learn fast. he found himself caught up in donald trump's attempts to use american military aid to get ukraine to investigate his rival, joe biden. for zelensky, it was important to generate more support for ukraine and not to be a part of domestic political games so, of course, lack of experience could create some problems at that time, but this is how he learned what international policy is, and how not to be in the trap — how to diplomatically present ukraine, but not to be used for the interests of somebody. with rumours of impeachment hearings mounting, zelensky met trump in new york. his acting skills, for once, deserted him. because of the dynamic in the united states, president trump kept the meeting going in front of the cameras, for about 45 minutes or so, so very difficult to have a serious conversation between two leaders of countries when you are doing so much of it in front of the media. i think zelensky handled it well, and i think wasjust saying, "0k, we've got to get through this period and then let's see if we can resume a normal relationship again". air raid siren wails then, on 24th february, everything changed with the start of the russian invasion. a man who had turned to politics just three years before was now facing down the world's second most powerful army. this war has brought out the very best in volodymyr zelensky. whereas president putin has come across as aloof and distant, zelensky has seemed very much relatable and down—to—earth. staying with his people in kyiv, and staying in touch with video messages. the updates, delivered straight to social media, have enabled zelenksy to speak directly to ukrainians and people around the world. at times, the news has been almost unspeakably bleak. through it all, zelensky has sought to raise spirits, and to inspire hope. we have young, smart charismatic personalities, who deliver simple messages, who basically tell the truth. and then you see putin, who is ageing, who is hiding somewhere, who has this long table, and nobody knows what he is thinking. russian tv and the kremlin have resorted to hurling unsubstantiated insults towards kyiv. this guy has a nerve, i mean zelensky, he has balls. because the thing is, the first days, it was a disaster it was stress, it was depression. and all of a sudden you see somebody who behaves very different, and he is the president of your country, and this works immensely on ukrainians. before this war, zelensky struggled to get invites to western capitals. now barely a day passes without him addressing a parliament or international organisation. the message follows a set path — showing the full horrors of russia's war on ukraine, and then demanding that the outside world do more to equip his country to resist. everybody saw the picture of zelensky in bucha. and can you imagine such a picture of putin? never. zelensky often visits hospitals to see wounded soldiers. he is also visiting ukrainian families. you can get access to president zelensky. you could see him everywhere. the first chapters of the zelensky story are far—fetched — a comedian and tv president leading a country at war. russia's size and might mean the odds are still stacked against ukraine, but given what has happened to volodymyr zelensky so far, anything is possible. good evening. it's been a case of two extremes today — the sunshine across more southern and eastern parts of the country and the thick rain—bearing cloud into north—western parts of the uk, brought by an area of low pressure. so here's an example — in the western isles of scotland, it was a case of heavy rain, breezy conditions too, really not very pleasant at all, whereas across more southern parts of the uk, sunshine with some hazy skies. but, then again, we do need the rain. it has been an incredibly dry april and that rain is welcome across many parts of the uk, especially england and wales where rainfall amounts have been perhaps a third compared to what we should normally have this time in april. so here are the temperatures early on sunday morning — typically around seven to ten degrees celsius. the damp and cloudy weather will be with us on sunday, so if you were hoping for some sunshine on sunday, probably not going to be the case. it will be a generally overcast day and, remember, we do need the rain. it will be spreading into parts of wales and england, particularly these western and south—western areas. but as the day wears on, that rain will slowly fizzle out, so we're not going to see an awful lot at all across eastern parts of england, for example. the best of our weather on sunday will be across scotland. here, some sunny spells, with temperatures up to 17 in glasgow. compare that to only 11 in plymouth. and then bank holiday monday, not much rain left on that weather front. a relatively bright sort of day with some sunny spells, perhaps one or two showers breaking out across parts of england and wales. temperatures higher, though, with those sunny spells — 18 in london, but a little bit cooler there in parts of scotland, only 1a in glasgow and barely double figures in the north of scotland. now, here's the outlook. as far as the week ahead is concerned, this high pressure will be building in. i think midweek we will have again some rain, but from wednesday onwards, that high does build in and around this area of high pressure, we will see a current of mild, even quite warm air stretching all the way from the azores, riding around this area of high pressure and spreading into western parts of europe. and you can see the rise in the temperatures, particularly across southern areas, up to around 20 degrees by the time we get to friday and i think the mid—teens in the north, and generally dry weather to come next week as well. this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. in ukraine, officials say the eastern region of donbas is coming under heavy russian attack. in the besieged city of mariupol say twenty civilians have been able to leave the site ? but hundreds are thought to still be sheltering there. in an exclusive interview with the bbc — the conservative mp neil parish says he's resigning, after admitting he watched pornography in the house of commons. in the end that i can see the fury, the damage i was causing my family and my— the damage i was causing my family and my constituency, that it wasn't worth_ and my constituency, that it wasn't worth carrying on.

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