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 staff of journalists from Newsround to learn how 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 easy. 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 automobile 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 quicker.
Minutes later, the automobile stops. I step outdoors to file a fast video on my telephone. The air is chilly and it is so quiet.
I have a look round however there’s not a lot to see at nighttime.
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 principle highway. Individuals are indoors, making an attempt to remain heat – it is bitterly chilly outdoors.
There aren’t 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 aren’t getting electrical energy tonight.
The following morning, I am up early and again within the automobile.
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 completely 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This battle – the largest in Europe since World Conflict Two – is now a 12 months outdated. 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 by 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 the whole lot. “One night time, we felt an enormous explosion, it lit up my bed room, shaking the home and waking us up.
“We saved operating by different individuals’s gardens with the sound of bullets whistling close to our toes.”
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 aren’t any bricks, doorways or home windows. A twisted pile of metallic, some outdated pots and pans and charred wooden is all that is left.
The reminiscences of what occurred listed below are arduous for Viola to relive, however like a lot of the kids I’ve met in Ukraine, she is set to hold on with the issues that make her pleased, like enjoying the piano and spending time together with her canine.
We saved operating by different individuals’s gardens with the sound of bullets whistling close to our toes.
Later that night time, I return to our resort 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 completely different lives now.
I’ve come to satisfy 11-year-old Dimitri. His city was additionally occupied by Russian troopers.
When the preventing began, his household and their neighbours hid in garages on the sting of city, hoping they is perhaps safer. They have been flawed.
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 outdated. His residence was hit by a missile
“I may by no means think about that such a scenario would occur,” he tells me. “I may by no means think about that there could be a battle and I may completely by no means think about that my flat could be burned.”
Dimitri’s household needed to discover elsewhere to cover.
They made their option 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 tough – meals and clear water have been restricted.
He informed me: “We spent a whole lot of time within the basement – it was chilly and gloomy, after all we may see many individuals, mother and father, youngsters fearful about their family members, after all 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 group not too long ago 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 might hear the blasts that made us much more scared
Contained in the basement, there are many rooms with small beds for youngsters, toys to play with and bottles of water and meals.
There aren’t any home windows, that is the place individuals come after they hear air raid sirens.
Dimitri reveals me the mattress he slept in when he needed to keep within the basement for weeks.
He mentioned: “I’ve modified rather a lot throughout these previous 12 months. I began to grasp how good it’s to have a house.”
Numerous youngsters in Ukraine miss going to highschool.
Both ongoing preventing or faculty buildings being destroyed means on-line classes solely, and for others, even that is not possible – there is no such thing as a faculty of any kind.
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 file the kids listening to their instructor.
I go to a college … 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 an odd 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 observe the kids into the college 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 fearful for my family and myself and for all my mates,” he says.
Underground, classes proceed and kids 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 resort’s automobile park following extra air raid sirens. Missiles hit buildings lower than 10 miles away
The following morning, I am woken up in my resort room by the sound of one other air raid siren. My telephone goes off, messages from the staff telling me to get down into the resort’s basement as shortly as potential.
For the following 4 hours, we keep underground. The resort’s automobile park has been changed into a shelter.
Over the course of the morning, Russia ship a recent wave of missiles over Ukraine. One lands lower than 10 miles from our resort inflicting injury to buildings and killing civilians.
The battle leaves little alternative for youngsters to have a traditional childhood and do all of the issues they get pleasure from.
I visited a bunch that has been set as much as assist them chill out. It is a spot they’ll speak, play and create. Issues are put to 1 facet, for a number of hours no less than, with slightly assist from Bise, a really energetic canine.
I go to an after-school centre the place youngsters can chill out and chat
Sofia has been coming to those after-school teams and tells me: “Youngsters will keep in mind this battle ceaselessly, a few of them should take counselling for a very long time, fixing their issues.
“I believe it should not have occurred to the kids.”
I go away Ukraine after greater than every 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 one is aware of what the long-term impression on youngsters will likely be – and no person is aware of when this battle goes to finish.
However what is obvious is that the kids I’ve met, regardless of the whole lot, have hope and a dedication to hold on.
I go away Ukraine realizing that sooner or later I’ll return.
You possibly can watch the 30-minute documentary Ukraine: The Children’s Story on the BBC iPlayer.
