Yana Koshelyeva calls Australia her second home. She lived here for years before returning to her country of birth, Ukraine, in 2017.
She never expected Russia to invade.
"Me and my mum, we are hiding in the basement shelter of our apartment house," she told 7.30.
"It's not just the fear, I'm in constant stress like everyone else. It's hard to sleep even when I have a little break. I have to take, you know, some sleeping pills and even with the sleeping pills I cannot sleep.
"It's a complete disaster."
Russian forces have been attempting to push into Ms Koshelyeva's city of Kharkiv, in Ukraine's north-east. Despite the danger, she decided to stay put.
She cares for her mother, who is a widow. Ms Koshelyeva's father died of COVID-19. She also runs an animal rescue service.
"I'm staying here. My mum's here. I'm not going to leave her. I've got about 18 pets," she said.
"We don't want the city to be destroyed... My city is my soul, so it's what belongs to my heart.
"We are strong, we're peaceful, we standing not for hate, we standing for love."
Ms Koshelyeva said food supplies were also tightening in Kharkiv.
"It's a big risk to run out of food completely, just because Kharkiv literally has just one exit towards other directions... so basically, Kharkiv is locked from all sides," she told 7.30.
"I was born in Soviet Union so I know how their life could be under Russian takeover and I don't want that to happen again. It was a nightmare. I know that people had no voices, no freedom.
"I hope for the best for Ukraine to win this battle."
'Most people are ready to take up arms'
Max Bergmann is a former US State Department advisor, now with the Center for American Progress. He believed Vladimir Putin was about to escalate his offensive.
"The Russians went in with a pretty poor military strategy that seemed to think that Ukraine was just going to fold and didn't really employ all the combat power that Russia could bring to bear," he told 7.30.
"The fear now is that Russia will shift to a much more kinetic approach where they will resort to using a lot of long range fires, bombing of cities, and this could get much more bloody I think in the coming hours, coming days."
That danger has prompted an estimated half a million people to flee Ukraine, according to the United Nations.
Michael Litovka, who also hails from Kharkiv, is another who has fled his home city.
"After about one and a half days of continuously switching between home and bomb shelter... the sounds kept on getting louder and closer and the warnings kept on getting more spontaneous," he said.
"So we realise that OK, there had to be... a way to get out."
But Mr Litovka can't leave the country because the government has ordered men aged between 18 and 60 to remain. After travelling for 30 hours, Mr Litovka, his family and girlfriend say they're now safe in a friend's hotel near Lviv, in western Ukraine.
"When we got the message about the possibility to evacuate, we had literally five, seven minutes to get ready," he said.
"So we were able just to just take the bare basics, some money, our documents, obviously a little bit of food... maybe one to two pairs of changes of clothes. That's all. That's all we could take."
Mr Litovka and his family ran an English school in Kharkiv — a business they had to leave behind, along with their cherished home.
"I'm not sure what's going to be there when we get back, if it's going to be there and if so, if it's intact, what's going to need to be fixed, replaced," he said.
"The feeling was definitely like, out of one of your worst possible dreams that could happen in the place where you live and work."
He said he was prepared to fight against Russian troops.
"If it comes down to it, yes, of course, everybody, or most people here, are ready to take up arms and protect their homes, because what else do we have left?" he said.
"Everybody understands that Ukraine is a pro-European country and we are moving towards integrating with the EU, we want to partner with and eventually join NATO."
Back in Kharkiv, Yana Koshelyeva hopes she's made the right decision to stay put but worries about Russia's escalating behaviour.
"I believe the West is not doing much... at the moment we need immediate actions," she said.
"Whatever Mr Putin says, there is no hate, there is no Nazi here. We embrace and love all people.
"Please pray for Ukraine. Help anyway you can."
Watch this story on 7.30 on ABC TV and ABC iview.
