A mum who was woken up by the noise of "fireworks" didn't realise a Russian missile had hit outside her home.
In February, Lesia Kondratiuk woke early to the sound of fireworks outside her 11th floor apartment in eastern Ukraine and rushed to her window to spot the culprit, but annoyance turned to fear as she realised the loud bangs were missile strikes. Now the 44-year-old says she feels "totally safe" as she settles into her new life in Merseyside.
Fears of an escalation in the seven-year conflict in eastern Ukraine had been brewing for months, but Lesia, 44, never expected a full-blown invasion by her country's neighbour. As a mum-of-two, Lesia's mind switched to her two teen kids, trying not to scare them as they packed for a two-week stay in a cottage an hour outside Odessa, their home city of a million people on the Black Sea coast.
