What was it like to have your city, your peaceful city, suddenly attacked?

Yeah, it happened early in the morning.

It was around 5 a.m. I woke up because my husband came to me and he told me,

wake up, the war begins.

War has been raging in Ukraine for two months now.

We'll not forget this day. Never. Never forget this day.

On February 24th, Russia launched the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in a televised address announced a military operation in Ukraine

claiming it's intended to protect civilians.

Air raid sirens sound in central Kiev as big explosions were heard in the capital just before dawn.

Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences.

And as the casualties and atrocities have mounted in the week since,

ordinary Ukrainians upended their lives to protect their homeland.

I realized that the only way to live somehow with this is to start working somewhere to have this feeling of being helpful.

And Russia's invasion is nowhere near over.

I'm Gustavaryano. You're listening to The Times, daily news from the L.A. Times.

It's Monday, April 25th, 2022.

Today, the stories of three Ukrainians who came to the aid of their country

in its hour of greatest need.

I can't say it was a hard decision, actually,

because it was a really impulsive decision.

L.A. Times foreign correspondent Kate Lenthicum has been talking to people in Ukraine since the war began.

...