Just over a year ago, after months of accusations and flat denials about whether Russia

was about to go to war, Vladimir Putin sat down behind a polished desk in the Kremlin

late at night to address the nation.

With a flag of Russia behind him and a bank of telephones to his left, as if he might pick

up the receiver and order an invasion at any moment, Putin looked into the camera and delivered

a rambling hour-long speech in which he claimed Ukraine wasn't a real country.

Putin attacked the Ukraine in identity, its sense of nationhood, he rewrote its history

and claimed the country had no right to exist.

By the time his speech finished, just before midnight, the world knew that war was coming.

Within days, on the 24th of February, it came.

The dawn chorus that no one wants to hear, air-raid sirens in Kiev, signaling that the

full-scale invasion of the European country in the year 2022 was well underway.

Ukraine calls this strike which hit a maternity hospital in Mariopol a war crime.

In the year that followed the world and the Kremlin who thought the war would be over

in days, have been stunned by the strength of the Ukrainians' will to protect their country,

their language and their values.

Many going back to fight, like husband and wife Alexander and Maria, have no military

experience, just the love for their country.

Across Ukraine, ordinary people gave up their comfortable lives to fight for their country.

One of Ukraine's most famous bands cancelled their American tour and enlisted in the army

instead.

As their lead singer appeared in the streets of Kiev wearing a military uniform and singing

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