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Fleeing Kyiv: How we escaped the Ukrainian capital as war broke out

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced five friends and their young families to leave their homes for the second time in eight years

By Tetiana Bezruk
Fleeing Kyiv: How we escaped the Ukrainian capital as war broke out
Kyiv, 27 February | (c) Ukrinform / Alamy Stock Photo. All rights reserved
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Eight years ago Sofia, Dima, Vika, Andriy and Maryna left their hometown in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region after Russia took control of it in 2014.

The group of friends moved to Kyiv. On 25 February, they left the Ukrainian capital after the Russian army started shelling the city.

Tetiana Bezruk, a correspondent for openDemocracy, drove with them out of Kyiv to Khmelnytskyi – a town 350km to the west – to find out what it’s like to flee your home for the second time in eight years.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0