Attacks on civilians have spurred Ukrainians to join war effort against Russia — in any way they can
CBC
Tears welled up in Nastia Estomina's eyes, in spite of a forced smile for the benefit of her young children, every time she thought of the difficult journey fleeing her home in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine.
While still there, they were under constant threat of shelling, with fighter planes flying so low at times Estomina could pick out the expression on the pilots' faces.
Holding in the memories of life in Kharkiv before the war for the sake of calming her children is difficult, she told CBC News.
"You're trying to be strong and hold in the emotions, but when you start to think about it, you ache to go back home," Estomina said.
This isn't the first time the 26-year-old has been forced from her home. In 2014, Estomina escaped from Sloviansk, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, after pro-Russian separatists moved into that strategic city.
Having now left Kharkiv, Estomina is intent on crossing into Poland with her two young children and her younger brother.
Sitting in a temporary shelter set up in the central train station in Lviv, a mere 70 kilometres from the border with Poland, Estomina is trying at once to soothe her five-month-old baby and keep an eye on her rambunctious two-year-old daughter.
"The children don't understand, but we understand everything," Estomina, 26, continued, wiping her eyes and describing her constant anxiety. "We don't know where we are going, we're just going, at least to where there are no sirens."
Hovering nearby, ready to help, is trauma psychologist Olena Vorona. She volunteers here twice a week, and the need is even more acute now that the war in Ukraine is in its seventh week.
"They've lived through so much trauma, far more than the people we saw in the first few weeks," Vorona told CBC News, specifying that often, a psychological reaction to the trauma of daily bombings and shelling can be delayed. "Someone can live through it calmly and they hold the emotions inside and the effects will be seen months later."
Vorona is one of thousands of Ukrainians who are devoting their time and doing whatever they can to help support the country's defence against the Russian invasion, including helping to send aid to those most in need, in the parts of the country in the east and the south hit hardest by the fighting.
Many volunteers report feeling even more determined to help out at all hours after devastating images in recent weeks emerged of civilians seemingly targeted by Russian attacks, which Ukrainian officials deem to be war crimes.
The Kremlin has denied the accusations.
At a sprawling warehouse in the Lviv region, boxes upon boxes are piled up and stacked alongside pallets with everything from canned food to clothes to protective gear to medical supplies — much of it donated by countries around the world and entering Ukraine through nearby Poland.
