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As I enter Ukraine, the streets are darkish.
It is taken a day to get right here and it feels surreal to lastly be standing in a rustic at battle.
Ten hours earlier I boarded a aircraft from London to Kraków in Poland. From there, it is a three hour drive to the Ukraine border.
I am right here with a group of journalists from Newsround to learn the way youngsters are doing, a 12 months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As we begin our journey in direction of the border, it begins to snow.
Crossing into Ukraine is surprisingly simple. Our automobile is parked up subsequent to a white van painted with a Polish and Ukrainian flag. It is carrying garments, bottles of water and different important provides.
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Each automobile is checked. I hand over my paperwork and we wait.
Lower than quarter-hour later, the engine is on and we’re on the transfer. The tyres of our automotive transfer ahead slowly onto Ukrainian soil.
After months of planning, that is the second I have been ready for and my coronary heart begins to beat sooner.
Minutes later, the automotive stops. I step exterior to report a fast video on my cellphone. The air is chilly and it is so quiet.
I have a look round however there’s not a lot to see at midnight.
I meet up with 13-year-old Viola who needed to escape her house in the course of the night time after her village was taken over by Russian troopers
We proceed the drive to the town of Lviv in western Ukraine.
There are many homes set again from the primary highway. Individuals are indoors, making an attempt to remain heat – it is bitterly chilly exterior.
There are not any lights on, as an alternative I can see candles flicker in home windows as we drive previous a row of homes. There is a blackout, which implies individuals on this a part of the nation usually are not getting electrical energy tonight.
The following morning, I am up early and again within the automotive.
The journey to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital metropolis is seven hours lengthy.
Identical to the UK, there are petrol stations and quick meals eating places all alongside the motorway, however there’s one thing totally different that I’ve by no means seen earlier than.
Buildings destroyed, residence blocks badly broken and warehouses burned to the bottom.
It is all proof of a battle, one thing I’ve by no means seen with my very own eyes.
This battle – the largest in Europe since World Struggle Two – is now a 12 months previous. A 12 months since Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his armies to invade Ukraine.
Final 12 months, 13-year-old Viola needed to escape her house in the course of the night time after her village was taken over by Russian troopers.
Viola appears to be like via the wreckage the place her house as soon as stood
“We did not even have time to look again at our home and we did not know the place we have been going,” she says.
Viola tells me how the Russian troopers destroyed all the pieces. “One night time, we felt an enormous explosion, it lit up my bed room, shaking the home and waking us up.
“We saved working via different individuals’s gardens with the sound of bullets whistling close to our ft.”
Viola, her youthful sister and mum managed to flee and have been evacuated to a safer a part of Ukraine.
She invited me to try the place her home as soon as stood. There are not any bricks, doorways or home windows. A twisted pile of metallic, some previous pots and pans and charred wooden is all that is left.
The recollections of what occurred listed here are arduous for Viola to relive, however like a lot of the youngsters I’ve met in Ukraine, she is set to hold on with the issues that make her blissful, like enjoying the piano and spending time together with her canine.
We saved working via different individuals’s gardens with the sound of bullets whistling close to our ft.
Later that night time, I return to our lodge within the centre of Kyiv. All the road lights are off so individuals carry torches to see the place they are going. Large church buildings with golden domes at the moment are shrouded in darkness.
Many households in Ukraine reside totally different lives now.
I’ve come to fulfill 11-year-old Dimitri. His city was additionally occupied by Russian troopers.
When the combating began, his household and their neighbours hid in garages on the sting of city, hoping they is likely to be safer. They have been incorrect.
When the Russian shelling started, a younger boy and his father within the storage subsequent door have been killed.
Dimitri’s residence was additionally hit by a missile.
That is Dimitri, who’s 11 years previous. His residence was hit by a missile
“I might by no means think about that such a state of affairs would occur,” he tells me. “I might by no means think about that there could be a battle and I might completely by no means think about that my flat could be burned.”
Dimitri’s household needed to discover some other place to cover.
They made their strategy to a basement in a close-by pre-school constructing – the place they stayed on and off for 2 months, sharing the house with 270 others. The situations have been troublesome – meals and clear water have been restricted.
He informed me: “We spent a variety of time within the basement – it was chilly and gloomy, in fact we might see many individuals, dad and mom, children frightened about their family members, in fact we might hear the blasts that made us much more scared.”
I adopted Dimitri down the steps to see the basement for myself. It smells damp and it’s extremely chilly.
The neighborhood lately painted the partitions within the basement to attempt to brighten up the place.
Dimitri tells me it appears to be like so significantly better now. Final 12 months, the basement had no electrical energy or web.
We’d hear the blasts that made us much more scared
Contained in the basement, there are many rooms with small beds for kids, toys to play with and bottles of water and meals.
There are not any home windows, that is the place individuals come once they hear air raid sirens.
Dimitri exhibits me the mattress he slept in when he needed to keep within the basement for weeks.
He mentioned: “I’ve modified so much throughout these previous 12 months. I began to know how good it’s to have a house.”
Numerous youngsters in Ukraine miss going to highschool.
Both ongoing combating or faculty buildings being destroyed means on-line classes solely, and for others, even that is inconceivable – there isn’t any faculty of any type.
I meet up with youngsters who’ve simply returned to the classroom within the metropolis of Zhytomyr.
My digicam operator picks up his digicam and begins to report the youngsters listening to their instructor.
I go to a faculty … and expertise my first air raid siren. The kids keep calm as we transfer to security in a basement
Seconds later, the lesson is interrupted by a wierd noise.
It is an air raid siren, a sound that is arduous to explain and one thing I’ve by no means skilled earlier than.
The loud warning rings out throughout the town and different elements of Ukraine to let the inhabitants know that an air raid is anticipated.
We start to comply with the youngsters into the varsity basement the place we keep for 2 hours.
I ask one of many boys how he feels. “I really feel a bit scared and in addition a bit frightened for my family members and myself and for all my associates,” he says.
Underground, classes proceed and youngsters dance and play video games.
Academics attempt to distract them from their worries – that is one thing they’re used to now.
I am underground in my lodge’s automotive park following extra air raid sirens. Missiles hit buildings lower than 10 miles away
The following morning, I am woken up in my lodge room by the sound of one other air raid siren. My cellphone goes off, messages from the group telling me to get down into the lodge’s basement as rapidly as doable.
For the subsequent 4 hours, we keep underground. The lodge’s automotive park has been became a shelter.
Over the course of the morning, Russia ship a contemporary wave of missiles over Ukraine. One lands lower than 10 miles from our lodge inflicting harm to buildings and killing civilians.
The battle leaves little alternative for kids to have a traditional childhood and do all of the issues they get pleasure from.
I visited a gaggle that has been set as much as assist them calm down. It is a spot they will discuss, play and create. Issues are put to 1 aspect, for a number of hours at the least, with a little bit assist from Bise, a really energetic canine.
I go to an after-school centre the place youngsters can calm down and chat
Sofia has been coming to those after-school teams and tells me: “Kids will keep in mind this battle ceaselessly, a few of them must take counselling for a very long time, fixing their issues.
“I believe it should not have occurred to the youngsters.”
I depart Ukraine after greater than per week travelling round, speaking to youngsters and I am overwhelmed by their honesty and what they’ve endured.
I’ve additionally seen communities come collectively. They’re defending one another.
No person is aware of what the long-term influence on youngsters can be – and no person is aware of when this battle goes to finish.
However what is obvious is that the youngsters I’ve met, regardless of all the pieces, have hope and a willpower to hold on.
I depart Ukraine understanding that in the future I’ll return.
You’ll be able to watch the 30-minute documentary Ukraine: The Kids’s Story on the BBC iPlayer.
