Eight years after a pro-European protest movement toppled a Kremlin-backed president in Kyiv and Russia fomented a grinding war in the country’s east, people in Ukraine have been on tenterhooks wondering what Russian President Vladimir Putin might do next.
Their worst nightmare began to unfold as dawn broke on Thursday, after Putin declared the start of a “special military operation” in Ukraine. As he spoke, people in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa and other parts of the country woke to the sound of large explosions and air raid sirens. In disbelief, they turned on their TVs and radios to hear news that an invasion had begun, with Russian troops breaching borders to the north and south.
A large boom at 6 a.m. shook Yana and Sergii Lysenko from sleep in their Kyiv home. At first, Yana thought her husband was mistaken, it couldn’t be an attack, and told him to go back to sleep. Then they heard another blast.
“We started to listen to the news and we understood that the war had started, the Russian invasion is ongoing,” Sergii told CNN.
After hearing from friends that traffic had clogged roads out of the capital, the couple decided at first to remain at home with their 3-year-old daughter, packing their bags just in case.
“We are a bit in shock and trying to stay calm, not to show anything to our child,” Sergii added.
By the afternoon, Yana and Sergii had decided to leave their Kyiv home. They jumped into the car and started heading west to Ternopil, a town 300 miles west of Kyiv, about 120 miles from the Polish border.
“We think it will be more safe in Ternopil. The last thing was when we heard the bomb, that’s why we decided to get out from the city because we are living in the center,” Yana told CNN from the car, as they were driving away.
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