Name: Four years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine | BBC News
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And already today there has been a minute silence.

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People get an alert on their phone here in Ukraine and the country tries, if it can, to take that minute, that moment to just remember those that have died.

Lots of dignitaries arriving here in the capital for commemorations that are taking place across the day.

Prime ministers, presidents from across Europe in particular are here to stand with President Zelensky and all of Ukraine.

But we did also see continuing Russian airstrikes across the country.

In the city of Zaporizhzhia, we know that five people, including a child, were injured.

Several big multi story buildings were damaged.

There are drone strikes there all of the time.

But just a reminder that this war does continue despite this very solemn day for people here in Ukraine.

We have some pictures just to show you just of Kyiv this morning.

Really difficult for us to be move around the city this morning because of all the dignitaries that are here and the things that are taking place.

But people are also out as well, visiting some of the memorial sites, paying their respects as well.

But you can see this is just a street scene on a very cold day again here in keep, although it is warmer than it has been and that is a relief for many.

The street's a little bit difficult to get around to because that snow turning to slush, as you can see.

In Kyiv this morning, a very, very poignant moment today as well in Bucha, where we saw people visiting the local cemetery, you may remember that name, Bucha.

There were victims in the cemetery of the Russian occupation where people are buried there.

And throughout the day we know that President Zelensky and others are going to be here.

Lets have a listen to President Zelenskyy who addressed the nation this morning.

One day I want to come here with the President of the United States.

I know for certain only by coming to Ukraine and seeing with one's own eyes our life and our struggle, feeling our people and the enormity of this pain.

Only then can one understand what this war is really about.

And it's because of who the aggressor is here and who must be pressured that Ukraine defends life and fights precisely for this and that this is not a street fight.

It is an attack by a sick state on a sovereign one.

He is the cause of its beginning and the obstacle to its end.

And it is Russia that must be put in its place so that there can be real peace.

Let's take you live now to my colleague Paul Adams.

He's in Bucha, which is east of here, which was occupied by Russian troops near the start of the war.

A trail of death and destruction there, which shocked the world at the time and continues to.

This was really the first place where the nature of the Russian invasion became truly apparent.

The Russians were only here for a few weeks.

They landed at an air base just two or three miles north of here on this day four years ago.

The troops occupied Bucha for just a matter of weeks before being pushed out again by the Ukrainians.

And in the immediate aftermath of that, the world was horrified by the images that we saw.

Bodies of civilians left lying in the street and a mass grave that was unearthed a short time afterwards.

It's not for nothing that President Zelensky, in his list of places associated with tragedy, listed Bucha first in his speech this morning.

We had a service just half an hour or so ago here at a cemetery.

This is a cemetery devoted to the military.

These are all people who died either in the course of the defense and recapture of Bucha or actually, for the most part, in the long four years since.

There was a group of people, not huge, but

people, who came here and laid flowers at the graves of many, many soldiers who are lying here.

There are places like this all over Ukraine.

The faces of the fallen stare out at you from these granite headstones.

A small snapshot of the enormous cost paid in human lives over the course of the last four years.

Thank you, Paul Adams and Bucha, who will be joining us again throughout the day.

Well, inside Russia, none of Russia's main television channels this morning mentioned the anniversary in their news bulletin.

They continue to just air news stories that talk about Russian successes.

They call this a special military operation.

But if we can take you to the newsroom in London now, I'm joined by Ben Steele.

Now, Ben is the director of the Zero Line Inside Russia's War, which is a remarkable film about Russian soldiers who actually managed to flee the front line of the war.

Then an incredible documentary that you've made.

10 Tell us about some of the stories you heard and what the soldiers told you.

Well, we met with four soldiers who were serving on the Russian front lines, including an officer and the most senior staff officer to ever speak out, we believe, against the war and explain the lawlessness that's happening on the Russian front lines.

It's very hard for us to understand just the scale of lawlessness that's happening there.

Russian soldiers are being sent forward in waves to attack Ukrainian forces without much motivation.

And so what the Russian soldiers are telling us is they're telling us about executions and torture that Russian commanders are using against their own men to force them forwards.

Ben, how many Russian soldiers do we know are being killed every day on the front line?

Well, the UK MOD estimates that between 900 and 1500 Russian soldiers are being killed or wounded every day in fighting Russian soldiers.

The slang that's used to refer to these assaults is meat storms, where men are just thrown forwards and it's literally clambering over the bodies at times of their.

And the stories that we've heard and that we've been able to substantiate is that there are specific commanders who, as I mentioned earlier, are torturing and executing their men.

So we have completely comprehensive accounts of commanders shooting men point blank who refuse orders, and

To execute Russian soldiers who fail to comply with their commands.

And, Ben, just to remind people, these are soldiers who are trapped there on the front line.

Are they able to communicate with their families?

I mean, they're definitely not able to leave, right, once they're there?

So the men we spoke with, some of them were mobilized.

One of them volunteered initially under false pretenses.

He believed he was going to be a truck driver, and

one of them was a senior staff officer, so was already in the military.

But these men getting away from the front lines once they discover the horror and the brutality of the fighting and the way in which they're being treated, just going forwards in these meat storms, it is, of course, very, very difficult to get out of the situation they're in.

One of the men we spoke with, a man called Ilia, was mobilized in 2024 with a group of 79 soldiers from his hometown.

And we've seen the paperwork and the documentation, and

he believes that he is the sole survivor of that group of 79 men with the others, all killed in action.

Ben, so much of what you're saying in the testimony that you've gathered will really shock people when they hear these stories.

But of everything that you heard from these soldiers, what is the one thing that you found most confrontational, most challenging, most shocking?

Well, I guess from a perspective as being an outsider coming to this, it's just completely breathtaking to realize the way in which Russian soldiers are being treated by their commanders, the way in which they're being treated like meat, that the total lack of value of human life, that what's so obviously important for commanders is that they achieve the aims that they've been set.

And this goes all the way to the top, this goes all the way to Putin, that they must simply advance, that that is all that matters, that men are just thrown forwards on a daily basis, relentlessly trying to wear down the Ukrainian opponent.

And one of the men said to us very clearly, look, the opponent is in front of us, but

Really remarkable documentary that you've made, Ben.

Ben still director of the Zero Line Inside Russia's War.

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Four years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine | BBC News

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