ELEVEN days ago, Yana Shvarchenko and her English husband Daniel Collinson, from York, were living a normal, happy life.

They had a flat in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest (and, Yana insists, most beautiful) city. Both had good jobs, Yana as an IT manager, Daniel as an English teacher. Life was good.

They had money, Yana had just bought a piano, they were making plans for the future. And then they woke up on the morning of Thursday, February 24 to find the Russians shelling their city.

Yana couldn't believe it. Sitting on the sofa in her mother-in-law Sue Collinson's home in Acomb, she still can't quite believe it.

The people of Ukraine respected Vladimir Putin, and looked up to him, she says. Many people in eastern Ukraine were of Russian nationality. Yana herself speaks Russian. "We believed that he would never kill our people," she said.

Rumours circulated on social media before the Russian invasion were dismissed as 'crazy Americans', Yana said. Then, at 5am on February 24, she was woken by her building shaking. She thought at first the noise she could hear was fireworks, then realised it couldn't be.

She and Daniel leaped out of bed, grabbed bags, and rushed into the street. Neighbours were milling around, wondering what was happening. But older, calmer heads prevailed. "They said 'nobody will bomb us, nobody will hurt us'," she said.

She and Daniel went back to bed. But she couldn't sleep. "And then we heard more bombs. It was like an earthquake, very loud," she said. This time they knew it was for real. They grabbed their bags again, and made their way to the first place they could think of that would be safe - the Metro station.

York Press:

The Metro station where Yana and Daniel sheltered for four days

They were to spend the next four days there, sleeping on cardboard, while fighting raged overhead and shells rained down on the once-beautiful city.

Yana was too scared to leave the underground at all. Daniel occasionally ventured out to grab more clothes from their flat or queue for food.

For the last two days, they and the other refugees with them were locked in while fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops raged overhead.

Eventually, on Monday morning, the Ukrainians managed to regain some control - enough for Yana and Daniel to make a break for it. She managed to book a taxi to the station.

Their taxi driver, risking his life for only double the normal fare, cracked jokes as they passed bombed-out cars and lorries riddled with bullet holes.

York Press:

A bombed-out car in the centre of Kharkiv

Even at the station, their nightmare wasn't over. It was heaving with people, Yana said. And there was a strict women- and children-first policy. Daniel wasn't going to be allowed to board a train. Yana clung to him and told the guards he was her husband and that he was British. They wouldn't relent.

Eventually, a second gate opened. Again, it was woman and children first. But this time Yana marched up to the gate. "I started saying 'I'm a woman! I'm a woman! He's my husband!" she said. Somehow, they got through.

After 20 hours of travelling, stopping frequently, they reached Lviv in western Ukraine, where they were able to swap to another train for the Polish border.

In Poland, they and the countless other refugees were welcomed with open arms, Yana says. Everything was free for them - food, water, transport. "The Polish people were unbelievable," she said. That was when she started crying for the first time.

They went by train to Kracow, stayed the night in a hotel, and arrived at Manchester Airport late on Wednesday evening. There, customs officials insisted on scrutinising her visa. And when they explained that they had no English money, they were refused train tickets.

They were only able to get home to York because Daniel's mum Sue put some money on his card.

Now, safe in Sue's front room in Acomb, all Yana's thoughts are back in Ukraine.

She is grateful to be in York, she says - though she thinks the UK government could do more to help refugees. "But I really hope that the war will stop soon. We want to go back to Kharkiv to help rebuild."

Alternatively, you can make a donation to the Ukrainian Army here

 

Why is this happening to us?

AS well as shock, anger and grief, one of the abiding feelings of many Ukrainians following the Russian invasion of their country is disbelief, says Yana Shvarchenko.

Yana says that on the morning of the day shells began falling on the city of Kharkiv, where she and her English husband Daniel, from York, were living, she rang her father Oleksander.

He was living in the Ukrainian town of Kupyansk, about 80 miles away. And at first he flat out refused to believe that Putin’s Russia could possibly have launched an attack, Yana said.

“He said ‘It is b*******! Where are you getting your information?’” Yana said. “We said ‘it isn’t information. We woke up this morning and the building was shaking’.”

Her aunt, who lives in Russian-occupied Crimea, also refused to believe it. She told Yana: “Open your eyes! The mission is to save Ukraine!” Yana said.

The fact was that many Ukrainian people respected and looked up to Putin, and could not believe he would ever attack them, Yana said. The truth was really brought home to many of her family only when her Uncle Volodymyr, a Ukrainian border guard, was shot and killed.

Even now, she says, many Ukrainians struggle to believe that Putin is evil. There is still widespread disbelief, she said. “My father said to me: ‘Why is this happening to us? We are just normal people’.”