Night Train to Safety: One Ukrainian Family’s Odyssey

Ludmila Lichko, 40, from Mykolaiv, and her son Vladislav, 16, travel on an evacuation train as they flee Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on their way from Odessa to Ismail, Ukraine, March 16, 2022. (Reuters)

Ludmila Lichko wearily cradles her nine-year old son Ivan aboard a crowded train as it pulls out of Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa just before midnight and heads south towards the Romanian border, moving away from the war engulfing their country.

Fleeing with Ivan and her other son, 16-year-old Vladislav, Lichko can think only of her husband Denis, an engineer, who has stayed behind in their home city of Mykolaiv to fight invading Russian forces.