When Moscow issued an ultimatum to NATO and then decided to recognize the Donbas republics, I understood what everything was leding to. In Putin’s speech on the decommunization of Ukraine, I finally felt his mood.

Before going to bed on February 23, I read that a night shift of an enterprise located near the Kherson region was evacuated in Crimea. I woke up from two explosions in Kyiv around 5 am on February 24.

I had already experienced this in 2014, when I lived in Luhansk. For a while, it seemed to me that these explosions no longer frightened me. But in less than 8 years I forgot that feeling. I began to shake as if I were cold. Millions of thoughts flew into my head.

Without opening any news sites, I already understood everything. It took me about 20 minutes to come to my senses. We called our relatives to make a plan in case there is no cellular connection.

During the day we changed our minds 5 times on whether it is safer to stay in Kyiv or go to the West of Ukraine. Towards the evening we managed to gather our thoughts and decided to temporarily go to Volyn. My son is 7 months old, and I understand that in Kyiv, the risks of running out of water, electricity, or medicine necessary for the child are too high for us.

For the second time in my life, I am leaving my favorite city with one backpack and no plan.

Serhii, Kyiv, native of Luhansk