At least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, have been killed, according to the head of the Russian health ministry. A further 1,115 people, including 33 children, have been wounded. Reuters said it was as yet unclear whether the ministry was only referring to civilian casualties.
There was heavy fighting in Kyiv on Friday night as Russian ground forces attacked on multiple fronts across the city. Ukrainian armed forces said they resisted Russian advances on an army base and a major road.
Five Ukrainians told us about their experiences since the Russian invasion.
‘We still can’t believe it’
I am in Bucha. It is a few kilometres from the airport where the fighting has been going on. We are sitting with children and dogs most of the time in the basement. We don’t have the internet here. When it calms down a bit, we go outside and try to connect to wifi. There are nine adults, three children, four dogs, one cat and one parrot here.
The first shock has gone. We’ve already got used to the sounds of shelling and explosions so we are not scared any more to go outside to message people.
Though we have already had the war for eight years, it is still impossible to believe that there are bombs and missiles in the centre of Europe. And we don’t understand what the world is waiting for with sanctions. Evgenija, 47, journalist, Bucha, Kyiv Oblast
‘Shocked. Anxious. Sad. Angry’
Right now I’m with my family in Kharkiv. Yesterday we moved to a private house of our friend where there’s a cellar. We did it because our own apartment is located in a 16-floor building in a neighbourhood close to the exit of the city, a ring road. Since yesterday, one of the most serious fights for Kharkiv has been happening there.
We are not leaving the home. Just sitting here, constantly talking to friends and monitoring the news. It’s hard to describe how we feel. We still can’t believe it. Still shocked. Anxious. Sad. Angry. We feel hatred. And proud of our brave heroes – our army.
We are afraid of being occupied by the Russians. We want to be able to continue living in an independent, free, developing Ukraine. We don’t want to hide our identity and our beliefs in European values. Nika, 30, English teacher, Kharkiv
‘The news is crushing my heart’
I escaped Kyiv yesterday in the early morning, shortly after waking up due to missile attacks at approximately 5am. I already had an evacuation plan and all my things packed, so it was almost with no issues, except traffic jams all the way to the west.
I took my parents with me, thank God. I told them to pack their backpacks on Wednesday evening. That was crucial; many of those who told me this would never happen didn’t manage to escape the city.
Now I’m in a small village in the west of Ukraine, where I originated from. I don’t hear any shelling now, but it feels no safer. The news is crushing my heart. I’m praying for our army and hoping a bit that the “free world” will help us somehow. Also, I’m pushing some posts and tweets on what’s happening and sending my savings to the Ukrainian army. Vik, 33, graphic designer, Kyiv
‘“We are OK,” mum texts and I burst into tears’
My parents are living in Ukraine while I am currently overseas. While they call it a “blessing” because I am safe, I feel absolutely helpless and the pain I experience is endless and bottomless. “Your father doesn’t want to hide in a bunker,” my mum texted me this morning. Fifteen minutes later I see push notification from the news channel saying a place next to them was bombed. My world ceased to exist that second. That moment you know precisely where in the chest your heart is located, because sharp pain cuts it into a million pieces. This pain is physical. Minutes of silence feel like eternity. “We are OK,” mum texts and I burst into tears.
This war tears apart families. My father’s sister was also born in Ukraine, moved to Russia in the 70s, she is an incredibly intelligent woman, highly educated, working in academia in Moscow. She says war is our fault. She believes Ukrainians have been killing and torturing Russian kids in Donetsk for the last eight years and now Russia must save them. She believes Russian media and says we are making stuff up. Well, I guess I don’t have a family in Russia any more.
My grandparents fought in the second world war and it might sound awful but I am glad they passed away. I am glad they don’t see how nations who were fighting next to each other can now kill each other, how a sister can believe propaganda and fake media but not her own brother who is hiding in a bunker, how the peaceful land they saved in the 40s is destroyed again and people are bleeding. Karina, 33, data scientist, from Ukraine and working in the Middle East
‘I’m returning to Ukraine to join the army’
In Ukraine it’s a whole mobilisation right now, from age 18 to 60. You cannot leave the country now, it’s a mandatory rule. At 5am on Thursday, my brother called me and said: “War just started. Russia attacked Ukraine.” And that was it.
Until it happened we did not believe that this could happen at all. My parents and my brother are in Kyiv. Every half an hour there is bombing, so they go to the underground bomb shelter for safety. Kyiv was peaceful when I left on 22 February. A lot of our western partners like Biden said there was a possible attack, but we did not believe it. We thought there could be escalation, but did not believe it would be a full-scale invasion. We believed in diplomatic solutions to problems.
I’m returning to Ukraine to join the army. [My family] disagree with my decision to enlist because there is a lot of fear, but it’s my country. I do not know how to live in Ukraine without freedom, without the rule of law. I don’t want it to go back to the Soviet Union. I was born in a free country, and I will die in a free country. Dmytro, 24, law graduate, from Kyiv, on a work trip to Geneva
