Victoria Derbyshire brought a BBC News interview to an end this morning (February 24) after her guest from Ukraine heard shelling outside her home.
The BBC News channel interviewed Maria Avdeeva, a research director at think tank European Expert Association, who joined via video link from Ukrainian city Kharkiv just before 11am UK time.
Maria said she woke to the sound of shelling in the city, after Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion into Ukraine overnight.
READ MORE: What time is Boris Johnson's announcement about Russia and Ukraine and how to watch
Explosions have been heard and witnessed in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and other major cities such as Kharkiv after Mr Putin announced a military operation had begun.
Maria felt this during the interview. Just two minutes into her conversation with Victoria, Maria said: "While we were talking, major shelling is happening outside of my house."
Victoria asked if she needed to go somewhere else, but Maria said she was willing to go on. The BBC news host then asked Maria what she thought of Mr Putin's claim that he wished to "de-Nazify Ukraine" through military action.
Maria said this was an example of a propaganda drive from Mr Putin and was being used in order to seize control of Ukraine.
Victoria then brought the interview to a close two minutes later and said: "Thank you very much for talking to us. Please take care."
Earlier in the interview, Maria compared Mr Putin with Adolf Hitler and his actions at the beginning at the Second World War.
She said: "I never thought that Putin would actually start that war and now he behaves the same way as Hitler did in 1939 - looking for pretext and then invading the neighbouring country."
Asked by Victoria whether she would remain in Ukraine, Maria said: "Yes I am going to stay. I am not going to leave.
"We know where to go if they start to use aeroplanes and strike from the air, but I am also ready to fight because it is our land and we didn’t threaten Russia with anything.
"I do not have any place to go, my home is here and I will defend it with all means that I have."
She continued: "Ukrainians are ready to fight and resist and we are already doing that."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
