Waking to explosions and fleeing barefoot: Ukrainians on the day Russia invaded

Waking to explosions and fleeing their homes barefoot in their pyjamas are some of the memories Ukrainians recall about the “terror” they experienced the morning Russia invaded their country.

February 24 marks a year since Russia’s invasion and that day is ingrained in the memories of people across the country who experienced it, including British-Ukrainian student Valentina Butenko.

Then a teenager, the 20-year-old was in Kyiv when missiles started striking the Ukrainian capital and she told the PA news agency she woke at about 5am local time to the sound of an explosion.

“The first thing I remembered from February 24 was the sound of a huge bang or an explosion, and I woke up and there was an immediate understanding of what had happened,” said Ms Butenko, who splits her time between London and Ukraine, and studies at University College London (UCL).

“There was this sense of white terror – it has begun and this idea that what had begun could bring an end to so many things that I hold dear, and I think that took a few moments to process, but when something like that happens and your family is there, you go into survival mode.

“That first day – because of how shocking everything that had happened was – you don’t have the mental space to process it, you just had to plan, you just had to move.

“I remember we had to call some of our friends; they brought over weapons to our house in case we needed to defend ourselves.”

Ms Butenko said there are moments “ingrained” in her mind about the initial two days of the full-scale invasion as they were “so fresh, raw and shocking”, and she felt “stripped naked” as missiles flew over her house.

“On the first two days, there were some incredibly heavy bombings – there was a power facility not too far from where I lived that was bombed and you could smell the gas coming into the house,” she said.

“There were a few times when you would see missiles literally fly over your house.

“Those moments were so terrifying because it strips you naked, metaphorically speaking – you actually can’t do anything.”

Dmytro Krishovsky, a graphic artist who lives close to Kyiv, said when he thinks back to February 24 of last year his arms feel like “frost”.

“I’m feeling the goosebumps, the return of that state of mind from last year,” the 34-year-old, speaking via an interpreter, told PA.

“At four o’clock in the morning, when the first explosions sounded, I woke up and opened Facebook, and saw many of my friends posted ‘It had begun’.

“My wife (Iryna, 30) came back to the room running and started to get the kids ready in pyjamas, barefoot.

“We took the cat, some belongings, the pet snail we bought the day before and ran to the car.”

Speaking ahead of the one-year anniversary, Ms Butenko said the war needs to end with Ukraine having complete control over its territories and her country must “take this fight to the very end”.

“This isn’t a country that leads military warfare, this is a country that leads terrorist warfare – they bomb civilians, they flatten cities, they destroy power stations”, she said.

“I think this war still has some time to go on because when you are dealing with such pure evil, there’s no middle point where you can stop and say ‘let’s compromise’.

“If there is one thing I want people to take away from this war is that you cannot eliminate or stop one chunk of evil and leave it there.

“It is very important that Ukraine takes this fight to the very end where there is no more question of who controls the territory, of who controls the people or land – it is Ukrainian.

“If you compromise with evil, it will just keep coming back stronger because of the nature of Russia and the fact that they have a population who doesn’t care enough about what is happening in Ukraine and would rather live with their eyes closed.”

Ms Butenko has spent much of the last year helping refugees to flee the war and traveling between the UK and Ukraine to transport supplies that will aid the war effort.

She implored people to not forget about Ukrainians.

“In the moments of greatest difficulty and terror, just knowing you are on people’s minds helps me a lot,” she said.

“Even seeing Ukrainian flags in London or around the world, that actually is more powerful than people may realise.”

Mr Krishovsky added that he does not want people to “get used to this horror”.

“We are in the epicentre of the events and we have no choice,” he said.

“But the world has a choice – either help us to stand for the world’s freedom or close your eyes – and we would like the world to continue to see and help us.”