Ruslana is a choreography teacher at the Kyiv Art Lyceum. On the first day of the full-scale invasion, she and her family quickly packed their belongings and left for what seemed to be a safer Irpin. The very next day, Ruslana realised the trap they were in. 12 days in the basement under incessant russian shelling and almost no sleep until they had the opportunity to leave – on the last evacuation train and with their daughters only, leaving her husband and son in Irpin.

The three days when the family did not get in touch became the most terrible memory of those times. A photo of her husband’s elderly mother, whom he eventually took out of Irpin in a wheelbarrow, made headlines around the world.

After all she has been through and two attempts to emigrate, Ruslana is convinced that she can only be happy with her family and only in her native land.