If anyone needed a sign that this was a morning like no other on the Sunday shows, Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday was quick to supply it.

“Dobroho ranku and dobroye utro,” said the presenter, extending “a special welcome to our viewers in Ukraine and Russia”. How many people he was wishing good morning to in Ukrainian and Russian he did not specify. He was certain, though, that there was only one topic in town – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Like the Sunday papers, the politics programmes had to cover a fast changing story at the same time as providing analysis. A tricky balance to strike but they managed it – with one glaring exception.

On BBC1’s Sunday Morning, Sophie Raworth started strongly by going live to Clive Myrie on his rooftop spot in Kyiv. With the golden dome of St Michael’s Cathedral behind him, Myrie spoke of of a “pretty grim” night in an underground shelter. In the early hours there had been two missile strikes at an airfield south of the city, the exploding petrol tanks lighting up the sky as if it was dawn.

In the studio in London reviewing the Sunday papers were Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator, and Bridget Kendall, former BBC Moscow correspondent now an academic and author.

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Kendall said that in common with other Russia analysts, she never thought an invasion could happen because of the very close links between the two countries.

“Why would [Putin] want to embark on this, it doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Let alone that it is an enormous country to try to subdue, and is in the eye of the world’s media.”

It was interesting to note how official media in Russia were handling the story, she added. Banned from using the words invasion or attack they were calling it a “special operation” and trying to make it look as if it was happening in the eastern part of Ukraine, where fighting has simmered since 2014.

How long a conflict might last was among the questions addressed by Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, as she toured the studios.

One newspaper, quoting “senior sources” said it could be up to a decade. Ms Truss was not that specific, telling Phillips that the west had to be prepared for “a very long haul”.

On Sunday Morning, Raworth asked the Foreign Secretary if she would support people from the UK joining an international force, an idea raised by Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, and repeated by Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, on the show.

“If people want to support that struggle I would support them in doing that,” said Ms Truss.

On BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show, Angus Robertson, the Scottish Government’s external affairs secretary, backed SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford’s call for the Russian Ambassador to the UK to be expelled, and added Russian diplomats in Scotland to the list.

“The idea that we should have Russian diplomats in the UK supporting the Kremlin lies about the war in Ukraine is intolerable.," said Mr Robertson.

"This is not normal circumstances. This is not a time for normal diplomatic relations.”

Across the morning the programmes had almost been as one in concentrating on Ukraine. The exception turned out to be Sunday Morning, which changed tack half way through to puff the new series of Killing Eve, a frothy BBC drama about, of all things, a Russian assassin. It was either a welcome lighter moment on a grim morning, or a jarring misjudgement.

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Raworth and her interviewee, the actor Fiona Shaw, did their best but the item sat awkwardly with the rest of the programme.

Having an arts item in the middle of a politics show was part of the Marr brand. It fitted well with his other work for the BBC, including Start the Week. But on the evidence of yesterday the producers of the new show might decide this is one item they can easily drop.

A decision is expected soon on who the presenter of that new show will be. Raworth’s stint was said to be temporary, though she has been praised for her performance and could decide she wants to stay on.

Otherwise, Laura Kuenssberg has been tipped to take Marr’s spot. The recruitment process was thrown into flux by the news last week that Jon Sopel, a possible contender for Kuenssberg’s job, and Emily Maitlis, are following Marr to Global to launch a podcast. The BBC’s game of musical chairs continues.