Natasha Doronin is treasuring every moment with her father after they were recently re-united for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces last month liberated the Russian-occupied town of Kupiansk — in Ukraine's north-east — which was seized just days after the start of the February 24 invasion.
Her 83-year-old father had become trapped there with extended family after initially fleeing nearby Kharkiv.
Ms Doronin was almost completely cut off from him for seven long months, relying on relatives to travel closer to the Russian border to get phone service.
"From time to time, they'd send me photos of letters which my father wrote by hand," she said.
"In return, I would quickly send him a text message … while my nephew still had access to [the internet] within those five or 10 minutes."
In early September, Ms Doronin was elated to hear the news that Kupiansk had been liberated and was hopeful she could finally see her father again.
"That was the happiest day for me because, in my imagination, de-occupation meant that now … I would be able to talk to him," she said.
However, even though Russian forces had retreated, getting her father out of Kupiansk was not easy, Ms Doronin said.
It required an elaborate operation involving friends, volunteers and soldiers to get him from the house and take him to Dnipro, deeper into Ukrainian-controlled land.
"I wrote a letter to my father with instructions to trust those people who were going to show him this letter … so the moment he meets my friends, he had to follow their instructions and trust them," she told the ABC.
Liberated, but not yet liveable
Ukraine continues to gain battlefield momentum, liberating territory in the east and south of the country.
The country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia was struggling to "control everything" on the battlefield.
"They wanted to capture us in three days … but they failed," he told the Lowy Institute in an address on Thursday evening.
"They didn't know what to try to do, whether to attack, whether to conquer or to rob another house.
"They've looted, they've killed, they raped people."
While the breakthroughs are bringing hope that loved ones can be reunited, Ukrainian disinformation and security expert Maria Avdeeva says some areas were still too dangerous to enter.
Although liberated, cities like Kupiansk are close to the frontline and are still being targeted by Russia, meaning aid agencies are unable to reach them.
"This means that people who live there, they still don't have access to anything because it's too dangerous for humanitarian aid providers to come there," Ms Avdeeva told the ABC.
Ukrainian officials are advising residents in towns near the frontline to leave the area, which is littered with mines, according to Ms Avdeeva.
"People will be able to return when the Ukrainian army will be able to push Russia further out, so that means that the civilian areas won't be in the range of artillery fire."
Ms Avdeeva, a Kharkiv local, has been documenting allegations of Russian war crimes in previously occupied areas of Ukraine, including in Izium, where a mass burial site was discovered in a forest.
She said it was difficult to imagine locals returning, because homes had been reduced to rubble and ruins.
"For myself, it's very difficult because I understand that the consequences are very long term," Ms Avdeeva said.
"So, even if now the territory is liberated … still, people won't be able to return to normal life quickly because so much is destroyed."
Ms Avdeeva said supplies of Western weapons, including from Australia, immediately improved the Ukrainian army's ability to push back Russia by allowing them to be stronger and more precise.
"This liberation … was in large part possible because of the supplies of the Western weapons," she said.
Ukraine achieved another victory this week when it secured the key Russian logistics and transport hub of Lyman, in another blow to Vladimir Putin, who announced the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Retired Major General Mick Ryan told the ABC's The World program that the Lyman gain was politically important because it was militarily significant.
"It's an important political target as well, pretty soon after Putin annexed these four provinces in Ukraine, the Ukrainians responded by taking back more of their terrain," he said.
"The Russian's don't hold all of these [annexed] provinces yet. It's extraordinarily unlikely they'll be able to take all of the provinces and it will be very difficult for them to defend what they've got."
He said Ukraine needed to make more gains quickly before the cold winter sets in and when thousands of mobilised Russian soldiers are expected to join the invasion.
"They might be poorly trained, but they will still have to be dealt with by the Ukrainians."
Odesa coming back to life
Meanwhile, further away from the frontlines, Ukraine's success on the battlefields is helping some Ukrainians feel secure enough to return to something resembling normal life.
For six months, the strategic southern port city of Odesa was under Russian blockade.
Now Dima Karbov is happily welcoming customers back into his restaurant again without a tank in sight.
The 31-year-old opened his restaurant only two months and 20 days before the invasion, but was forced to shut and leave the country.
He felt "dead inside" seeing Odesa's streets empty after the outbreak of war, and described leaving it all behind like going through heartbreak.
"It was like somebody was destroying your plans and now you have nothing," he said.
"It was a strange feeling, like when you break up with a girlfriend and you can't explain how you feel."
Mr Karbov said he didn't leave Odesa because he was scared, but rather because the bare streets and constant sirens made him feel the city wasn't livable anymore.
He was eligible to leave Ukraine, and travelled to Berlin where he was taken in by an Australian couple for about five months.
Then, in August, Mr Karbov got a call from his business partner saying Odesa was slowly coming back to life.
"I didn't even imagine that I could re-open the restaurant, so when my partner told me it was [possible], I said: 'Woo, OK. Let's try!'"
Mr Karbov said he was a bit nervous, but mainly excited about returning home.
And, while there are still risks, he has a "gut feeling" the tide has turned.
"We must believe in something," he said.
"When all the shops and restaurants start working again, then people start to think: 'OK, this is not so bad. We can live.'"
