Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty
After Russian PresidentVladimir Putinmoved forward with plans toinvade Ukraineon Thursday, people in the eastern European nation are facing a “new reality” of violence and uncertainty.
Several months after leaving the Ukrainian Army, Yaroslav Vasylyuk tells PEOPLE he’s pausing his new career as a management consultant because he’s been called to return to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and protect his country.
“The majority of the population in Ukraine did not believe in the intentions of Russia to invade,” he says. “Despite all the deep concerns in the U.S. and EU, it looked like a political game, to force concessions from Ukraine. I did not believe Russia would attack. But I knew that the situation can change really fast.”
Explosions and airstrikes have been reported amid the evolving attack, with threats mounting against the capital, Kyiv, a city with a population of 2.8 million people. At least57 Ukrainianshave been killed since the assault began, the country’s officials said.
In Kharkiv, the nation’s second-largest city,CNNreporter Clarissa Ward spoke with one Ukrainian woman who was among hundreds of desperate people seeking protection in a subway station.
“It’s like you wake up into a totally new reality at 5 a.m., and you find out that the world is no longer the safe place you imagined,” she said.
“It’s hard to believe that it’s actually our neighbor doing this,” the woman told CNN as she fought back tears, “because we never really believed that our neighbor can just come and… tell us what to do. We are an independent country, Ukraine. And we are not the same as Russians and we don’t want to be a part of Russia or any other country. It’s very emotional.”
Terrell Jermaine Starr, a senior reporter at The Root who is in Ukraine, shared avideoof massive lines outside of gas stations as citizens prepared to flee the attacks.
Mariupol, Ukraine, on Thursday.Evgeniy Maloletka/AP/Shutterstock
Anna Dovnya, who was in Kyiv on Thursday, toldABC News, “Until the very last moment, I didn’t believe it would happen.”
“I just pushed away these thoughts,” she said. “We have lost all faith.”
BBC’s Eastern European correspondentSarah Rainsfordechoed that many Ukrainians are in disbelief that their country is under invasion.
“People were out on the streets last night in this city — they were waving the Ukrainian flag. They said this was their land. They were going nowhere,” she said. “This is what people have been expecting, they have been waiting for, but no one here can quite believe it’s actually happening.”
RELATED VIDEO: Maks Chmerkovskiy Posts Tearful Clips from Kyiv as Russia Invades Ukraine: ‘I Want to Go Back Home’
In a tearful interview with CBS News, Ukrainian politician Halyna Yanchenko made a plea for international help.
“Please save Ukrainia, please save Ukrainia,” Yanchenkosaid. “Please save our people. Dozens of people, maybe hundreds of people, might be murdered tonight.”
In Russia, more than 850 people were arrested whileprotestingPutin’s attack on Ukraine,Wall Street JournalreporterMatthew Luxmooresaid.
source: people.com
